Who Likes <scp>B</scp>ratz? The Impact of Girls’ Age and Gender Role Orientation on Preferences for <scp>B</scp>arbie Versus <scp>B</scp>ratz

Karniol, Rachel; Stuemler-Cohen, Tamara; Lahav-Gur, Yael

doi:10.1002/mar.20572

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(66 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It is then possible to observe which brands are ordered according to these criteria. As can be seen on the factorial card below (Figure ), we can confirm that largest majority of brands presented at Christmas‐time are deeply marked by gender (Karniol, Stuemler‐Cohen, & Lahav‐Gur, ; Richardson & Simpson, ). Some, such as Playmobil or Storio ( VTech console) are a little more central, similar to Uno , Monopoly, or Operation parlor games.…”

Section: Purpose Of the Researchsupporting

confidence: 70%

Status of brands in children’s consumption: What letters to Santa posted on La Poste website tell us

Ganassali

2018

Psychology and Marketing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of the research is to identify different consumption styles based on a large collection of letters to Santa written by some children and/or their families and submitted to the French Post website (La Poste). One of our main interests focuses on the presence and weight of brands and licenses in children's wish lists. We have had access to all the anonymous posts sent to Santa Claus through La Poste's website during the 2013 and 2014 Christmas holidays. We analyzed the nature of the wish lists as shown in the 43,000-post database using several textual data analysis techniques. Extensive heterogeneity was found among children's and families' postures regarding that specific ritual. The different types of emails reflect the meaning families associate with Christmas time but also their different consumption styles or attitudes toward consumption: reasoned, educational, hedonistic, or materialistic, for example. When focusing on brands and licenses, we can also observe significant differences in the way families and children include them in their consumption decisions. Brands could have a very different weight in Christmas wish lists and their natures reflect different value transmission modes. The French market for Christmas children brands is rather stable and focuses on a few top leading global brands such as Playmobil, Barbie, or Lego. At least one of the ten leading brands is mentioned in half of evaluated Christmas wish lists. The analysis confirms that brands are very clearly gendered and associated with the children's ages. Peak time for brand desire is alleged to be reached between the age of 7 and 9. To our knowledge, our research is the first to analyze a large sample of spontaneous data to capture children's consumption styles and attitudes toward brands. Because of our classification, a first typology of parental consumption styles has also been identified.

show abstract

Section: Purpose Of the Researchsupporting

confidence: 70%

Status of brands in children’s consumption: What letters to Santa posted on La Poste website tell us

Ganassali

2018

Psychology and Marketing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is no existing theoretical narrative that can explain the sex difference we observed in attention to female figures. However, the apparent consistency between infant girls’ interest in the high mate value female with an hourglass shape and older girls’ preference for toys representing women with an hourglass shape (i.e., Barbie) ( Karniol et al, 2012 ) suggests an understanding of our results can be informed by research on gender-linked toy preferences. In other research measuring visual attention, female infants compared to male infants look longer at a doll than a toy truck ( Alexander et al, 2009 ; Lauer et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Infants Prefer Female Body Phenotypes; Infant Girls Prefer They Have an Hourglass Shape

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Adolescents and adults show preferences for male and female body shapes consistent with evolutionary theories of reproductive fitness and mate selection. However, when these preferences for females with narrow waists (i.e., 0.7 waist-to-hip ratio) and men with broad shoulders (i.e., mesomorphic body shape) emerge during the lifespan is largely unknown. To address this knowledge gap, eye-movements were tracked in 146 infants (3–18 months of age) during computer presentation of three-dimensional human figures varying in body features thought relevant for reproductive success (e.g., secondary sex characteristics, waist-to-hip ratio). When presented with pairs of figures differing in apparent sex, male and female infants looked significantly longer at the female figure compared to the male figure, a new finding that extends previous research showing preferences for female faces in infancy. When presented with same-sex figures differing in characteristics associated with mate value, male and female infants looked longer at a low mate value male (i.e., an endomorphic body type) compared to a high mate value male (i.e., a mesomorphic body type), a finding that replicates the results of previous research. In addition, the novel use of high and low mate value female figures showed a sex difference in visual attention, such that female infants looked longer at the high mate value female figure compared to the low mate female figure whereas male infants showed the opposite pattern of results. In sum, these findings suggest that infants generally do not possess preferences for adult-defined attractive male body shapes. However, infant girls’ greater attention to a female figure with an adult-preferred waist-to-hip ratio raises the possibility that evolved preferences for 0.7 waist-to-hip ratio influence girls’ later preference for toys representing females with an hourglass shape, perhaps supporting elaboration of adult social behaviors that enhance reproductive success (e.g., cooperative breeding).

show abstract

“…Participants' gender identity was assessed using Children's Sex Role Inventory (CSRI) (Boldizar, 1991), an adaptation of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) Short Form (Bem, 1981a(Bem, , 1981b assessing gender in adults. The CSRI was developed for research in children/adolescents and differs from the original scale in that it uses full sentences to describe the traits (Karniol, Stuemler-Cohen, & Lahav-Gur, 2012). The scale has been found to be a wellvalidated measure for identification with masculine and feminine characteristics in children (Belfi, Conrad, Dawson, & Nopoulos, 2014).…”

Section: Participants and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexualized Video Game Avatars and Self-Objectification in Adolescents: The Role of Gender Congruency and Activation Frequency

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Little is known about the effects of playing sexualizing video games on adolescent boys' and girls' self-objectified body image. Early and middle adolescents (N = 115; Mage = 12.63, SD = 0.85) participated in a between-subjects experiment testing the effect of playing with a sexualized male or female avatar as compared to a control condition. We revealed that playing a video game with a sexualized avatar increased self-objectification among adolescents. This effect occurred regardless of the gender of the adolescent and thus did not support the gender congruency hypothesis. In contrast to the activation frequency hypothesis and video game literature on sexualization, the effect of playing with a female sexualized avatar was not moderated by game frequency. Given the adverse consequences of self-objectification in adolescence, the current study results highlight the need for research on how these effects may be countered.

show abstract

Who Likes Bratz? The Impact of Girls’ Age and Gender Role Orientation on Preferences for Barbie Versus Bratz

Cited by 6 publications

References 61 publications

Status of brands in children’s consumption: What letters to Santa posted on La Poste website tell us

Status of brands in children’s consumption: What letters to Santa posted on La Poste website tell us

Infants Prefer Female Body Phenotypes; Infant Girls Prefer They Have an Hourglass Shape

Sexualized Video Game Avatars and Self-Objectification in Adolescents: The Role of Gender Congruency and Activation Frequency

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About