Exploring Gender Differences on eCommerce Websites: A Behavioral and Neural Approach Utilizing fNIRS

Abstract

Whether males and females evaluate ecommerce websites differently has long been discussed and has resulted in inconsistent research findings. While some studies identified gender differences in the evaluation of websites, other studies indicate that these differences are inexistent. To shed light on these hypothetical gender differences on ecommerce website perceptions, a behavioral and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiment in which participants had to use and evaluate three different ecommerce websites was conducted. While the questionnaire-based behavioral results showed no significant differences between gender, neural gender differences could be discovered. In particular, well rated websites resulted in increased neural activity for men in brain regions of the dlPFC and vlPFC in the left hemisphere, while the lower evaluated websites resulted in an increased neural activity in brain regions of the vmPFC for men in the right hemisphere. Consequently, the results suggest that men seem to require higher neural activity for the emotional appraisal of, and decision making on ecommerce websites.