Working Together? Occupational Gender Role and Age Stereotypes - A quantitative study of ad and social effects of non-stereotypical advertising portrayals

Sammanfattning: Stereotypes are often used in advertising and research shows that it frequently occurs on the dimensions of occupational gender role and age, consequently giving rise to a variety of negative effects. A recent stream of studies has hence investigated whether the use of non-stereotypical portrayals can lead to positive ad and social effects, benefiting both consumers and marketers. The studies confirm that such positive effects indeed can be generated. Research on the consumer responses to non-stereotypical portrayal of occupational gender role and age respectively is however scarce. Even more so are the effects arising from combing the two stereotypes, despite previous research showing that these two stereotypes are often touched upon simultaneously. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to study consumer responses to non-stereotypical portrayal of occupational gender role, age, and the two combined, focusing on the ad and social effects generated from exposure to such portrayals. We conduct a study based on an experimental design in the form of a quantitative online survey, that was answered by 201 Swedish respondents. The male-stereotyped occupation truck driver serves as the study context. The results show that non-stereotypical portrayal of age leads to higher ad picture attitude and higher perceived sender effort, and that among female respondents, non-stereotyped portrayal of occupational gender role leads to higher social connectedness. The study hence contributes to the growing field of research on consumer responses to non-stereotypical portrayal of occupational gender roles and age respectively. It also starts a conversation about the effects generated by the combination of these stereotypes and shows why the fields should be studied jointly.