The Neurocognitive and Evolutionary Bases of Sex Differences in Website Design Preferences: Recommendations for Marketing Managers

INTRODUCTION Marketing managers habitually use sex as a form of segmentation since it satisfies several requirements for efficient implementation including profitability, identifiability, accessibility, and measurability (Dar-ley & Smith, 1995). Nevertheless, sex differences in marketing remain under-researched and continue to be a source of confusion for managers (Hupfer, 2002). Sex differences in cognitive processing are particularly relevant to e-business managers given that online consumers must process various types of spatial and perceptual information while navigating online. Despite the large body of evidence documenting consistent sex differences in cogni-tion (Kimura, 2004), there is a paucity of research exploring how male and female consumers respond differently to various website design aspects (Cyr Moreover, the few studies that have examined sex differences in online preferences were not grounded in any consilient theoretical framework. The main objective of this paper is to examine how sex differences in the processing of spatial and perceptual information lead to differential preferences in website design for men and women. We argue that sex differences in website design preferences are best understood within a framework based on both recent findings in neurocognitive psychology and on evolutionary theory (as originally reported in Stenstrom, Stenstrom, Saad, & Cheikhrouhou, 2008). Such a framework would enable e-business managers to tailor the design of their websites ac-The Neurocognitive and Evolutionary Bases of Sex Differences cording to the sex ratio of their clientele. In other words, depending on whether a website is equally visited by both sexes, or largely visited by only one of the two sexes, will determine the design features of the site in question. The structure of this chapter is as follows. First, the latest cognitive and neuropsychological evidence relating to sex differences in spatial and perceptual processing are explored, including a discussion of the particular selective pressures that have led to their emergence. This section also includes an examination of how these sex differences are likely to translate into the corresponding sex differences in the online processing of information. Next, website design recommendations for e-business managers are put forth, followed by a discussion of possible future research avenues.