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Causal Effect of Character Gender on Readers' Preferences
Federica Bologna1, Ian Lundberg2, Matthew Wilkens1
1Department of Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850.
Proceedings of the Computational Humanities Research Conference
|March 2, 2026
Summary
Gender homophily in publishing is not driven by men avoiding books with female protagonists. Contrary to industry assumptions, protagonist gender has minimal impact on reading preferences, with women showing a slight preference for female leads.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Psychology
- Publishing Industry Studies
Background:
- Publishing industry stakeholders observe gender homophily between authors and readers.
- A common hypothesis suggests men avoid books with female protagonists, influencing publication and promotion.
- Causal evidence on protagonist gender's effect on reader preference is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide causal evidence on whether protagonist gender influences reader preferences.
- To test the hypothesis that men are less inclined to read books with women protagonists.
- To examine women's reading preferences concerning protagonist gender.
Main Methods:
- A randomized survey experiment with 3,000 participants was conducted.
- The study isolated the causal effect of protagonist gender on reader preferences.
- Reader preferences were measured in response to varying protagonist genders.
Main Results:
- The effect of protagonist gender on reading preference was found to be close to zero.
- Men's reading preferences were not significantly affected by the protagonist's gender.
- Women exhibited a slight preference for stories featuring women protagonists.
Conclusions:
- The study challenges the assumption that men's aversion to female protagonists drives gender homophily in reading.
- Findings suggest that books with women characters are unlikely to alienate male readers.
- Publishers and authors can be reassured about the marketability of books featuring women protagonists.
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