Table 2.
A comparison of gender stereotypes about the popularity of 17 movie genres and actual film preferences of men and women.
| Genre | Study 1: | Study 2: | Study 1 vs. | Study 2: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stereotype | Preference | 2 compared | Rank | |
| Action | Men | Men | + | 5 |
| Adventure | Men | Men | + | 4 |
| Animation | Women | Neutral | – | 6 |
| Comedy | Women | Neutral | – | 1 |
| Crime | Neutral | Neutral | + | 3 |
| Drama | Women | Women | + | 8 |
| Erotic | Men | Men | + | 15 |
| Fantasy | Men | Men | + | 9 |
| ‘Heimat’ | Women | Neutral | – | 17 |
| History | Men | Neutral | – | 12 |
| Horror | Men | Men | + | 11 |
| Mystery | Neutral | Men | – | 13 |
| Romance | Women | Women | + | 7 |
| Science-Fiction | Men | Men | + | 10 |
| Thriller | Men | Neutral | – | 2 |
| War | Men | Men | + | 14 |
| Western | Men | Men | + | 16 |
The second column shows the gender that participants thought of having the stronger preference for a genre (Study 1). The third column shows the gender that actually had the stronger preference for a genre (Study 2). The fourth column shows whether the presumed gender difference and the actual gender difference matched (indicated by +) or mismatched (indicated by –). Finally, the right-most column contains the ranks of movie genres regarding their popularity, averaged across gender.