Gender effects on consumers’ attitudes toward comedic violence in advertisements

Abstract

This study examined gender’s effects on attitudes and tendencies to share online ads containing comedic violence. The results show that males enjoyed comedic violence more than females, when the perpetrator of the comedic violence was male, regardless of the victim’s sex; and, when the perpetrator and victim were both female. When the perpetrator and victim were of different sexes, the impact of attitudes toward comedic violence on sharing the ad varied by gender. However, when the victim and perpetrator were of the same sex, there was no significant gender difference in the effects of attitudes toward sharing the ad.

Keywords:

• attitudes toward comedic violence ads
• comedic violence advertisements
• disposition theory
• gender permutation
• tendency to share comedic violence ads

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge, with much appreciation, Middlesex University’s Business School Research Facilitation Funding (2018) for the data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).