We all know that men like to compete on possessions that women find rather primitive.
We also know that men like to flex their muscles in more ways than one - when they play football on the beach, when they compete on who can eat the most hotdogs or on who has the best job and the highest salary.
However, new research from Aarhus BSS adds a completely new dimension to male competition. It suggests that men compete against each other in places far removed from the beach, the hotdog stand or the workplace. In the study ’The Abercrombie & Fitch Effect: The Impact of Physical Dominance on Male Customers’ Status-Signaling Consumption’, researchers find that male customers spend more money and buy more expensive products than women when they are being served by a tall and muscular man. The effect is even stronger when the male customer is not as tall and muscular himself - and it is not limited to in-store interaction.
“To me, the results are particularly interesting because they show that our consumption habits and behaviour are not only greatly affected by other people’s physical appearance, but also by our own,” says Associate Professor Tobias Otterbring from the Department of Management at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University. Together with three colleagues, he has conducted the study in which a large furniture retailer as well as a laboratory formed the backdrop of the experiments that led to the results.
"Men who are neither tall nor muscular might not necessarily have a low self-esteem. However, they need to find a way to give vent to the uneasiness caused by the tall and muscular man - and to assert themselves even more because they have to compete on something other than physical appearance. They do so by buying expensive products that signal high status"
Tobias Otterbring - Associate Professor
In the field study, the researchers observed the behaviour of customers at a large furniture retailer. It turned out that when the salesperson was an athletic-looking man, men spent more money in the shop than women. On average, men also bought furniture that was twice as expensive, which means that the results can be transferred to other product groups as well.
To make sure that it was indeed the athletic appearance of the salesperson that prompted men to spend more money and buy more expensive products, the researchers subsequently tested the results in a laboratory setting. Here they found that the results were the same when men were shown visual images that thus only manipulated a sense of physical dominance.
“We call it the Abercrombie & Fitch Effect, because this particular American clothing chain has for years made use of big and strong men at the shop entrance. You might think that this would have the strongest effect on women, but our study shows that women are in fact not as influenced as men in terms of their buying behaviour. In fact, women spend a bit less money when they are served by a muscular man,” says Tobias Otterbring.
The results are driven by a psychological mechanism where the two men involved in the sale encounter unconsciously engage in a kind of laddish competition. This competition is in fact driven by biology and our stone-age brain - completely in line with the so-called Napoleon complex. This is the psychological term for people (especially men) who try to compensate for a personal (mostly physical) deficiency such as short stature or insufficient male organs by the use of artificial means e.g. tattoos, expensive cars, watches or jewellery.
“Men who are neither tall nor muscular might not necessarily have a low self-esteem. However, they need to find a way to give vent to the uneasiness caused by the tall and muscular man - and to assert themselves even more because they have to compete on something other than physical appearance. They do so by buying expensive products that signal high status,” says Otterbring and adds:
“We also find the Napoleon complex in the animal kingdom where small males are also more aggressive.”
Although we can transfer the results from evolutionary biology to the field of marketing, the results of the study do not mean that you should use looks as part of your recruitment efforts.
“Our research shows that looks have a strong impact. However, if this is the only parameter in your recruitment, you risk missing out on a lot of other important characteristics such as competences, experiences, etc. Thus, it would be wrong to do so. That being said, I don’t think that we should refrain from conducting studies that examine how we are affected by looks. We shouldn’t pretend that this effect doesn’t exist. It’s better to shed light on the issue and explore the way in which looks matter - whether we like it or not. When we as consumers are aware that looks matter, we might even find it easier to resist unnecessary consumption in the future,” says Otterbring and adds:
“You shouldn’t abuse the results to argue that only one type of employee is valuable. However, if you happen to have tall, muscular employees, you could let them deal primarily with male customers or let them work in the department that sells high-status products.”
The effect observed at the furniture retailer could also be observed in the laboratory where participants were only exposed to pictures of athletic-looking men. This means that the results may be used in out-of-store sales and marketing activities. The study suggests that advertising that displays tall and muscular men - be it on a screen, in print, on web shops or on TV - can evoke the same rivalry between men and thus the same behaviour as in a bricks-and-mortar shop.
“This might serve as inspiration in sectors that primarily make use of online shops. Or in the business community as such since the effect not only concerns products, but also services such as leasing an expensive or exclusive car, buying an optional luxury package on an exotic holiday or paying extra to get access to the VIP area at a concert, sports event or festival. However, this would require the presence of other people since there is no point in signalling status if there is no one around to see it. Men do not show off without an audience,“ says Otterbring.
However, the results of the study do not say anything about the long-term behaviour of male customers. They might spend a lot of money of expensive high-status products the first time they visit a shop. However, if they regret their purchase later, they might refrain from revisiting the same shop - or they might refrain completely from entering shops that have muscular men at the door or at the till.
“Physically domineering men create short term results, but for companies it’s important to build long-term customer relations, and we simply do not know whether this is a long-term effect,” Otterbring says.
How can we use the Abercrombie & Fitch Effect in future? The study of the Abercrombie & Fitch Effect points towards new and interesting questions that can be explored in future. Tobias Otterbring mentions the following examples: In nightclubs - nightclubs often make use of large and athletic-looking bouncers because it is believed that it has a positive effect. However, according to the results of the study, you would think that it creates more competition and aggressive behaviour between bouncers and male customers. So perhaps using big bouncers in nightclubs etc. is not such a good idea after all? At the doctors - if a doctor is physically domineering, will he evoke a competitive feeling in his male patients - particularly those who are less muscular? And would these patients then have to assert themselves to the doctor, for example by refusing to take their medicine, which would have detrimental effects? Re. beauty products - the current study focuses on products that men associate with high status. The question is, however, whether the evolutionary theory that forms the basis of the results means that athletic-looking men could make women buy more beauty and health products since these are products that women use to highlight their own attractive features.
Re. women - it would also be interesting to explore what type of employee has the strongest effect on the buying behaviour of male consumers. For example, what would have happened if the men in the experiment had been served by a female salesperson? Would the male customer have bought even more high-status products? |
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What the researchers didIn a field study, the researchers explored whether the presence (compared to the absence) of an athletic-looking male employee at the entrance of a furniture retailer affected how much money both men and women would spend in the shop and how expensive their purchases were. The presence, but not the absence, of an athletic-looking man led to male customers spending more money and buying more expensive products than female customers. In a series of laboratory tests, participants were exposed to an image of either a muscular and athletic-looking man or a non-muscular and less athletic-looking man. Subsequently, the participants would answer a number of questions about the man they had just been exposed to/seen a picture of. Afterwards - in the second part of the study -, they were asked to comment on their preferred size of company logos on their clothes, or on how much money they were willing to spend on expensive high-status products such as a new car or an exclusive wrist watch. In accordance with the results of the field study, it turned out that being exposed to a muscular and athletic-looking man made men prefer larger and more show-offy logos on their clothes. It also made them more motivated to buy high-status products compared to the men and women who had been exposed to/seen a picture of a non-muscular and less athletic-looking man. |
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