Numbers Are Gendered: The Role of Numerical Precision

Marketing communications often contain numerical information that can be expressed more or less precisely. Earlier research has identified a number of ways in which consumers respond differently to precise versus round numbers. The current research attempts to enrich this literature by introducing a new theoretical perspective. Drawing on recent findings in the numerical cognition literature, this work proposes that individuals project gendered meanings to precise versus round numbers, with precise numbers seen as more masculine relative to round ones. Seven studies provided convergent evidence for this proposition and demonstrated its marketing implications. Studies 1, 2, and 3, employing various approaches, show that participants do subscribe to this precision-masculinity intuition, at both implicit and explicit levels. Study 4 suppresses this effect by priming participants with examples where precision is connected to femininity. Building on these findings, subsequent studies demonstrate that marketing communications using precise (round) numbers lead to more favorable evaluations when the products or attributes are positioned as masculine (feminine).