#MeToo and the marketplace: Can social reform impact consumer spending?
While the movement heightened intolerance toward toxic behavior, audiences are slower to adopt new gender roles
Consumers are quick to reject problematic sexual content since the #MeToo movement began in 2018, and new research from the University of Arizona concludes that sentiment has reached their wallets. When small changes can shift millions of dollars at the box office, is it time for Hollywood to rethink its standards?
Nooshin L. Warren, associate professor of marketing at the Eller College of Management, analyzed revenue, casting and audience data from more than 1,500 blockbuster films and tracked depictions of sexual misconduct, female objectification and gender stereotyping in those same movies. She concluded that while #MeToo heightened intolerance toward toxic behavior, audiences are slower to adopt new gender roles.
"Economists see everything as supply and demand," Warren said. "If at any point consumers' perception about a product changes, it can change demand which leads to a change in supply. That means any social movement has the capability to be an invisible hand that disturbs market equilibrium. In this case, we wanted to know whether the #MeToo movement actually accomplished its goals, or was it just loud and generated a lot of buzz in the media?"
Warren conducted her study alongside colleagues from Texas Christian University and the University of Oregon. Their work was published in the Journal of Marketing.
Studying a social movement
Based on a term coined by activist Tarana Burke, #MeToo gained widespread attention after actor Alyssa Milano used the phrase on social media in 2017 to encourage survivors of sexual violence to share their stories. Within a year, the hashtag generated more than 19 million social media posts, sparked discussions and led to legislative changes.
To understand the impact of that campaign, the research team provided definitions of sexual violence, harassment and exploitation as well as gender characteristics like agency and strength to a ChatGPT-assisted review of 1,523 top-grossing films released between 2010 and 2023. The AI program used that information to review each movie on a five-point scale based on media reviews, plot summaries, online discussions across social media and other web sources.
Warren and her colleagues then reviewed, verified and supplemented that information with more than 300,000 keywords generated by the Internet Movie Database that represent the prominent themes in each film. In addition to tracking depictions of sexual harassment and the representation of gender roles, the review also accounted for a variety of factors such as seasonality, theatrical window and related real-world scandals. The team also conducted a demographic study of more than 4,700 U.S. moviegoers to understand which audiences most likely watched a given movie.
The researchers found that even small adjustments in sexual misconduct and gender portrayals in a film could add or subtract between $8 to $13 million in box office revenue. They also discovered that while audiences were less interested in movies that included problematic sexual behavior, public expectations of gender roles seemed to regress after #MeToo.
"When you think about social movements 30 or 40 years ago, people had to gather in the streets and protest. Nowadays, hashtags on social media can generate the same kind of attention," Warren said. "But when your movement generates momentum quickly, you may struggle deciding on a solution. In our study, we interviewed people who told us they don't want to see gender roles defining men and women and that men should be less toxic and kind. But, when we ask them about a movie in which a man cries or a woman is the breadwinner of the family, they weren't interested."
But why the film industry? Warren called the market an ideal testing ground to study the influence of #MeToo for several reasons. While the majority of allegations emerged directly from Hollywood, entertainment has long held a pivotal role in shaping gender norms throughout society. From the perspective of an economist, the industry also contributes more than $600 billion in global annual revenue and provides a strong indication of consumer spending.
The industry also suffers from inherent lag: The long production process prevents short-term adjustments. When #MeToo went viral, producers couldn't rewrite scripts and recast projects; most projects went on as planned. That inflexibility provided a controlled environment to measure how consumer preference shifted in recent years.
Adjusting to new standards
After studying consumer reaction to the #MeToo movement, Warren hopes the general public can better understand their own purchasing habits, and how media and social movements influences their wallet. She added that many industries still rely on gender definitions, whether through books, video games or brands with distinct mascots, and advertising has traditionally relied on gender roles when pushing domestic products.
"Detergent commercials often showed a clueless man, while car companies used a woman behind the wheel to show how simple it was to drive," Warren said. "Today, everything has to change. When I survey my students about these concepts, they feel insulted and they don't react well. While we've come a long way from the advertisements of the '80s, we still have a long way to go."
Journal
Journal of Marketing
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
How the #MeToo Movement Has Reshaped Gender Dynamics in the Marketplace: Evidence from the Entertainment Industry
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