Show Contextual Images to Female Customers

Men and women process information differently:

...females' processing often entails substantial, detailed elaboration of message content...males' processing is more likely to be driven by overall message themes (Meyers-Levy, & Maheswaran, 1991, p. 68)

Women prefer images that show more context.

Researchers tested this idea by showing a pair of jeans in two styles: (a) plain white background, or (b) a model wearing the jeans outside. Women preferred the contextual image, whereas men were unaffected (González, Meyer, & Toldos, 2021).

And the effect was additive: More context triggered more sales.

Follow-up studies suggested that men slightly prefer isolated backgrounds, but the effect was weaker.

• González, E. M., Meyer, J. H., & Toldos, M. P. (2021). What women want? How contextual product displays influence women’s online shopping behavior. Journal of Business Research, 123, 625-641.
• Lu, Z. Y., Jung, S., & Peck, J. (2023). It Looks Like" Theirs": When and Why Human Presence in the Photo Lowers Viewers’ Liking and Preference for an Experience Venue.
• Meyers-Levy, J., & Maheswaran, D. (1991). Exploring differences in males' and females' processing strategies. Journal of consumer research, 18(1), 63-70.