Why a picture alone can provoke contempt?

Contempt is a social emotion. It shows up when someone seems to step outside the role a group expects of them. Physical strength is still widely seen as a male trait. So for some viewers, a visibly muscular woman in an ad breaks an expectation.

Images are open to interpretation. When you show a strong woman with no words, each viewer fills in the meaning for themselves. A short text can anchor the image. A line like "You can do anything" tells the viewer why this woman is there and what the brand wants to say. In the pretests, people rated the version with text as clearer.

The researchers build on social hierarchy theory. People in the group that traditionally holds more status tend to react more negatively to symbolic challenges to that order, especially when the challenge comes without a justification. An empowering slogan offers that justification. It turns an unexplained break with the norm into a message with a purpose.

What the researchers found

Across three experiments with more than 400 participants in Israel and the United States, people looked at ads for health-related products featuring muscular women. Some saw the image only, and others saw the same image with an empowering slogan. Facial coding software recorded their expressions and picked up contempt through signals such as a one-sided smirk. Afterward, participants also reported how much contempt they felt.

The results showed that men had more contempt toward the image-only ads than toward the versions with text. In the follow-up studies, people who described themselves as more masculine showed the same pattern. Women's responses were less consistent. In the first study they showed more contempt toward the version with text, but that pattern did not return in the later studies.

The self-reports showed none of this. When people were asked directly, the difference between the two ad versions vanished in every study. Their faces told a different story than their answers. These were subtle responses, which is exactly why they slip past a questionnaire.

In the final study, participants chose between two well-known yogurt brands they could actually collect afterward. The contempt they showed toward the ad did not predict which brand they picked. Their existing attitude toward the brands did.

However, the studies had a specific setting: health-related products, a low-priced yogurt for the choice task, well-known brands, and participants in Israel and the United States. Whether this contempt hurts choice for unknown brands, pricier products or other cultures is still an open question.

How to use this in your campaigns

Give your strong visuals a voice. If you run an empowerment-themed ad for a mixed audience, pair the image with a short line that states the intent. In this research, the version with text drew less contempt from men and masculine viewers, and people found it clearer.

People tend not to report, or even notice, a negative reaction to an empowering ad. When you pretest an ad that touches gender norms, add an implicit measure such as facial coding next to your questionnaire.

Importantly, test the copy with women too. Women's responses to the text version were mixed. The researchers suggest some women may read an explicit empowerment line as preachy, or as setting an unrealistic standard of strength. 

Additionally, keep your brand in view. For well-known brands, contempt toward one ad did not change what people chose. Brand equity worked as a buffer. 

In practice

Big sports brands already work with both formats. Reebok and Nike have run empowerment campaigns in two versions, one with only the image of a muscular woman and one with the same image plus an empowering slogan. This research shows those two versions don't land the same way with every viewer.

The study materials show how small the difference can be. In one experiment, people saw an ad for a fictional brand with a muscular woman meditating on a sofa. The only change between versions was the line "You can do anything." Without it, more masculine viewers showed more contempt than more feminine viewers. With it, the difference disappeared.

Take home points:

• An empowering image without words lets viewers read it as an unexplained break with gender norms.

• A short, clear line of copy reduced implicit contempt among men and more masculine viewers.

• This contempt doesn’t show in a survey, so measure it implicitly.

• Test empowerment copy with women as well, because their responses vary.

• Strong, familiar brands absorbed the contempt in this research.