Abstract

Previous research has drawn attention to differences in shopping styles between females and males. This paper reports the development of a psychometrically reliable quantitative scale to measure shopping style, such that female shoppers tend to score relatively high and males relatively low. At the same time, as a companion to the shopping style scale, the authors also purify previously-reported scales for aspects of female and male psychology – the ‘empathising’ (concerning relationships, communication and emotion) and the ‘systemising’ (concerning perceived mechanical/spatial interests) scales. The scales were purified using two separately-gathered calibration samples (n = 570 total). The dimensions were then demonstrated to hold consistently and be distinct from each other in a hold-out sample (n = 2578). The dimensions also hold consistently in a range of national markets/sub markets: Spain, Chinese and three UK sub markets: White, Asian and Afro-Caribbean.

Across a range of markets (the above plus USA, Taiwan and Greece), females and males were significantly different on shopping style and Systemising (whilst the differences on empathising were less consistent). Females tended to have high ratings on the shopping style scale and to be empathisers. Males tended to have low ratings on the shopping style scale and to be systemisers. The shopping style scale offered slightly more precision in eliciting psychological differences between males and females than did the Systemising scale and considerably more than the Empathising one. An exploratory demonstration of the potential utility of the new gender shopping style scale was carried out; studying the extent to which shopping styles are culturally determined (they were more determined by sex than by self-reported national culture/sub-culture). Scaling up such a study to more countries and cultures could provide useful insights into the under-researched area of global vs. local shopping styles.

The results do not provide support for other researchers’ suggestions that gender differences in human psychology arise from roles in society. Males and females differ in shopping style (and also in systemising and empathising) in national cultures where gender equality is relatively high as well as those where it is lower.