BATTLE OF THE SEXES EXPLAINED

Neuroscience is becoming a more and more important marketing tool. Major advertisers are taking advantage of the rapid growth of knowledge in this area and research agencies are making it part of their offering. One of the recent findings suggests that when communicating with men and women there are certain differences that need to be considered.

"For the first time researchers show that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks."

It appears that women like more context and abstract information than men. It could explain why women often provide more context and abstract representation than men."

This could have major implications for how advertisers approach talking to men and women: Men appreciate shorter to the point copy whilst women enjoy the additional context.

Ask a woman for directions and you may hear something like: “Turn left on Main Street, go one block past the drug store, and then turn right, where there’s a flower shop on one corner and a cafe across the street.” Is that why my GPS voice is that of a female?

Such information-laden directions may be helpful for women because all information is relevant to the abstract concept of where to turn; however, men may require only one cue and be distracted by additional information.

This theory would suggest that advertising copy aimed at males should be simple and direct, while female-oriented copy should provide more context.

Comics have often played up the differences between the male/female thought process. The following sketch may explain it better than any scientific study.

The findings for the abstract are published in “Sex Differences in Neural Processing of Language Among Children” (Neuropsychologia) authored by Burman, along with James R. Booth (Northwestern University) and Tali Bitan (University of Haifa).