{"title":"Man Up? How Men and Women Respond to Ads Portraying Men in Gender Counter-Stereotypical Roles","authors":"Alessia Valmori, Sharon Coen, Claudia Manzi","doi":"10.1007/s11199-026-01665-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The negative effects of gender stereotypes have led many communication professionals to adopt strategies aimed at challenging them. One of these is counter-stereotypical advertising (CSA), based on representing men and women in non-traditional gender roles. However, little is still known about the actual effects of CSA and whether it truly leads to the intended outcomes. This study aims to examine these effects by focusing on CSA portraying men in domestic roles. In a two-wave repeated-measures experimental study ( <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 254), we examined how different types of domestic CSA affected people’s views about traditional gender roles. Participants were divided in three groups and exposed to different types of ads: CSA showing only men domestic roles, CSA showing men in domestic roles and women in counter-stereotypical roles, or control ads. Results showed that women who saw ads with counter-stereotypical roles became less traditional in their gender role beliefs, compared to women in the control group. However, men who saw the same counter-stereotypical role ads became more traditional in their views, showing a “backfire” effect. These findings suggest that CSA can have different effects depending on the audience, which is important for creating effective campaigns that promote gender equality. Practitioners in advertising, education, organizational management, and social policy should consider these differences when designing messages aimed at challenging traditional gender norms.","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2026-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Sex Roles","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-026-01665-y","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The negative effects of gender stereotypes have led many communication professionals to adopt strategies aimed at challenging them. One of these is counter-stereotypical advertising (CSA), based on representing men and women in non-traditional gender roles. However, little is still known about the actual effects of CSA and whether it truly leads to the intended outcomes. This study aims to examine these effects by focusing on CSA portraying men in domestic roles. In a two-wave repeated-measures experimental study ( N = 254), we examined how different types of domestic CSA affected people’s views about traditional gender roles. Participants were divided in three groups and exposed to different types of ads: CSA showing only men domestic roles, CSA showing men in domestic roles and women in counter-stereotypical roles, or control ads. Results showed that women who saw ads with counter-stereotypical roles became less traditional in their gender role beliefs, compared to women in the control group. However, men who saw the same counter-stereotypical role ads became more traditional in their views, showing a “backfire” effect. These findings suggest that CSA can have different effects depending on the audience, which is important for creating effective campaigns that promote gender equality. Practitioners in advertising, education, organizational management, and social policy should consider these differences when designing messages aimed at challenging traditional gender norms.
期刊介绍:
Sex Roles: A Journal of Research is a global, multidisciplinary, scholarly, social and behavioral science journal with a feminist perspective. It publishes original research reports as well as original theoretical papers and conceptual review articles that explore how gender organizes people’s lives and their surrounding worlds, including gender identities, belief systems, representations, interactions, relations, organizations, institutions, and statuses. The range of topics covered is broad and dynamic, including but not limited to the study of gendered attitudes, stereotyping, and sexism; gendered contexts, culture, and power; the intersections of gender with race, class, sexual orientation, age, and other statuses and identities; body image; violence; gender (including masculinities) and feminist identities; human sexuality; communication studies; work and organizations; gendered development across the life span or life course; mental, physical, and reproductive health and health care; sports; interpersonal relationships and attraction; activism and social change; economic, political, and legal inequities; and methodological challenges and innovations in doing gender research.