Research Design Connection: Using the Right Numbers
Numbers have a gender, and it’s a good idea to align numbers used to describe something with its perceived gender. Yan reports that, “Marketing communications often contain numerical information that can be expressed more or less precisely…precise numbers [are] seen as more masculine relative to round ones…marketing communications using precise (round) numbers lead to more favorable evaluations when the products or attributes are positioned as masculine (feminine).” Dengfeng Yan. “Numbers Are Gendered: The Role of Numerical Precision.” Journal of Consumer Research, in press. Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is …
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