Fifty Shades of Gay:
How Gender and Homosexual Imagery Disgusts Politically Conservative Viewers
Gavin Northey, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Rebecca Dolan, University of Adelaide, Australia
Felix Septianto, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Patrick van Esch, Auckland University of Technology, Australia
Michael Barbera, Clicksuasion Labs, USA
Vicki Andonopoulos, University of New South Wales, Australia
Fifty Shades of Gay:
How Gender and Homosexual Imagery Disgusts Politically Conservative Viewers
Gavin Northey, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Rebecca Dolan, University of Adelaide, Australia
Felix Septianto, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Patrick van Esch, Auckland University of Technology, Australia
Michael Barbera, Clicksuasion Labs, USA
Vicki Andonopoulos, University of New South Wales, Australia
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Purpose
Mainstream media is premised on aggregating large, heterogeneous audiences. Because of this, it is typically designed to appeal to as many as possible, alienate as few as possible and follow a “supposedly non-ideological middle ground” (Gross, 2012; p. 7). As a result, most mainstream advertising has typically been targeted at the heterosexual customer (Burnett, 2000), where heterosexual masculinity and the hypersexualized female are considered ‘normal’ (Rubin, 1984). This has resulted in ‘heteronormative ideals’ (Warner,1993) that provide the androcentric lens through which society perceives, interprets and responds to notions of sexuality and gender.
However, advertisers have often included implicit and explicit LGBT themes in order to be more inclusive of LGBT audiences (Ginder & Byun, 2015). While such efforts have mostly been well received by the LGBT community, parts of the heterosexual community have been shown to respond negatively to LGBT imagery in mainstream advertising (Dotson, Hyatt, & Petty Thompson, 2009). This is partly explained by the fact heterosexuals have been found to be much less accepting of homosexuality in general (Kite, 1984), and gay males specifically (Gentry, 1987). Effectively, in terms of heterosexual attitudes to homosexuality, there appears to be a form of ‘Homo-Gender Bias’ (HGB), where gay males are perceived in a more negative way than gay females. Despite that, there appears to be limited research examining how such HGB influences consumer attitudes or the causal mechanisms that make this occur. One explanation is that an individual’s political ideology has the ability to shape consumer attitudes (Kaikati et al., 2017), because it aligns their political and moral identity (Winterich, Zhang, & Mittal, 2012). Based on this, the current paper investigates consumer responses to LGBT-themed advertising and how the gender of the models (GoM) influences their attitudes. In addition, it examines how a person’s political ideology influences their response to LGBT imagery and identifies a primary emotional response (disgust) as the causal mechanism in the decision process. Specifically, we propose that for politically conservative consumers, the presence of (supposedly) gay male (vs.female) models in an advertisement will have a negative influence on attitudes towards the advertised product. This effect will driven by disgust and attitude toward the ad in a serial mediation.
Design/Methodology
The study employed a 2 (gender: male/female) x 2 (race: same/mixed) x 2 (level of sexuality: implicit/hyper) between-subjects design. While the influence of gender was the focus of the study, race, and level of sexuality were included to test the effects of gender in the presence of other factors, thereby adding to the robustness of the findings. For the eight conditions, separate advertisements were created for a fictitious product and brand (luxury watches) by manipulating the images of the models. The tagline ‘Love Is Love’ was included adjacent to the product and brand name, as it is synonymous with the LGBT movement (Nichols, 2014). Participants (n=546) were recruited from an online panel in the United States. A moderated regression analysis was run using existing scales for attitude toward the product (Aggarwal & McGill, 2011), political ideology (Kaikati et al., 2017), and attitude toward the advertisement (Lawrence, Fournier, & Brunel, 2013). Additional variables (respondent gender; sexual preference; age, education, religion, nationality) were recorded as controls.
Findings, originality, and contribution
As predicted, a significant effect was observed between gender (of models) and attitude toward the product. Consistent with Hypothesis 1, spotlight analyses revealed conservatives reported more negative attitudes toward the product when the ad included male (vs. female) models (B = .52, SE = .26, t = 1.99, p < .05). By contrast, politically liberal consumers reported similar attitudes toward the product, irrespective of the gender of the models in the advertisement (B = -.40, SE = .25, t = -1.59, p > .10). Similar analyses were conducted to test H2a and H2b. Results provide support for the hypothesis (H2a), such that conservative viewers showed higher levels of disgust when viewing advertisements that included male (vs. female) models (B = -1.28, SE = 0.30, t = -4.26, p < 0.01). Likewise, results provide support for the hypothesis (H2b), whereby conservative viewers reported a more negative attitude towards advertisements featuring male (vs. female) models (B = 1.56, SE = 0.34, t = 4.5, p < 0.01). No significant effects were shown for politically liberal viewers. To test for the mediation effects (H2c), a moderated serial mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS (model 85) where separate bias-corrected bootstrap models were created, with 5,000 bootstrap samples taken from existing data. Results show a significant indirect effect for politically conservative viewers (B = .21, SE = .065, CI: .0938-.3523). These results provide support for the hypothesis (H2c).
This research set out to investigate how LGBT imagery, GoM, and political ideology influence consumer attitudes. According to existing literature, the findings provide what appears to be the first evidence an individual’s (conservative) political ideology will have a negative influence on their response to LGBT imagery involving male models. In addition, this study identifies ‘disgust’ as the causal mechanism that results in negative consumer attitudes towards the advertisement and negative attitudes towards the product, in a serial mediation model moderated by an individual’s political ideology. The findings also demonstrate – contrary to existing literature – even implicit LGBT imagery that doesn’t include hypersexualized models will generate a level of ‘disgust’ in conservative viewers. Managerially, this research provides important implications for marketers, more specifically in the context of LGBT-themed print advertising. In particular, while consumers are more than ever familiar with the LGBT movement and its imagery in advertising, marketers must be cautious using such imagery among politically conservative consumers. Overall, this research draws attention to the importance of LGBT themes in advertising and the effects these can have on consumers’ product attitudes.
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