Contrary to the common belief that men do not read novels about women, a new study from Cornell University has found men are equally likely to continue reading a story featuring a woman as the main character as one with a man, while women are slightly more likely to prefer stories about other women.
For their study, the authors recruited a sample of 1,492 women and 1,491 men and asked them to read two 500-word stories that featured main characters with gender-neutral names. The first was about a character named Sam on a hike, while the other took place in a coffee shop with a protagonist named Alex. Half of the participants were asked to read the hike story with he/him pronouns and the coffee shop story with she/her pronouns. The remaining participants read the same stories, but the characters’ pronouns were switched. After finishing both stories, all participants were asked to choose which one they wanted to keep reading.
Nearly three-quarters of men chose the hike story regardless of whether it featured a man or a woman main character. Among the women participants, 77 percent chose the hike story when Sam was a woman, but only 70 percent of the time when Sam was a man.
The authors hope their research will encourage the publishing industry to promote more books featuring girls and women, as their findings suggest women characters do not necessarily alienate male readers.