A Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of Sex-Role Stereotyping in Television Advertisements: A Comparison Between Great Britain and New Zealand

Abstract

The present study compared sex-role stereotyping in British (N = 205) and New Zealand (N = 146) television advertisements. Following Harris and Stobart (1986), visually presented central figures were coded and analyzed independently of voice-over central figures. The attributes of visual central figures were classified into 72 categories based on previous studies (Furnham & Mak, 1999; McArthur & Resko, 1975) and thought to be sufficiently comprehensive: mode of presentation, age, credibility basis, role, location, argument, reward type, product type, product price, background, end comment and humor. The attributes of voice-over central figures were classified according to the categories of argument, reward type, product type, humor and end comment. The results of the analysis compared to other studies (Furnham & Bitar, 1993; Furnham & Skae, 1997) indicate that the extent of sex role stereotyping in Britain has declined over the past decade. The New Zealand data was found to be more heavily sex-role stereotyped than the British data, contrary to predictions. The findings of both analyses were considered in the light of previous research in North America, Britain and Australia.