The literature abounds with documented biological and sociological differences between men and women [11] . The most prominent and influential work is in the field of sociobiology, which attempts to explain all social behavior by evolution [12] . Studies have also explored the possible relationship between brain differences, sex hormones and behavior [13] . Supporters of this approach attribute gender differences to variations in work roles that evolved over millions of years, leading to changes in the brains of men and women [14] .

The research has documented differences between the sexes with regard to a number of areas: cognitive (e.g., [15] ), neurological (e.g., [16] ) and sociological (e.g., [17] ). Numerous studies have provided evidence that gender relates to customers’ perceptions, attitudes, and preferences and purchases [18] - [22] . Thus, it is reasonable to assume that evolutionary theory will predict gender differences in the importance they attach to various aspects of a service being offered. In the hunter-gatherer theory, [23] argued that the source of unique, gender-specific characteristics is evolutionary in origin. This evolutionary point of view claims that sex differences originated as a function of the division of labor as hunters and gatherers. Women are considered to be more relational, expressive and contextual, whereas men are independent and stress their competency, task orientation and instrumentality. Therefore, men are “selective processors” who do not engage in comprehensive processing of all available information before making a decision. In contrast, women are “comprehensive processors” who attempt to assimilate all of the available information before rendering a judgment. Hence, women give equal weight to information they gather themselves and from others, encode more messages, and elaborate more extensively on specific claims [24] . Some researchers documented neurological differences stemming from differences in the brain structures, establishing that women process emotions and memories differently from men [25] [26] . In the same manner [16] , claimed that a man’s brain is more lateralized than a woman’s, while in a female brain the corpus callosum that connects the hemispheres is thicker than in a male brain. As a result, women have a more holistic point of view, consider more elements when taking a decision and have greater contextual perception. Men are better at focusing on a target and are less contextual.

The evolutionary theory receives support from social psychology, which shows that women's self-image is based on the “self-in-relation” due to the importance they attach to the formation and maintenance of relationships [17] . In the same manner, men typically have an independent self-construal, whereas women typically have an interdependent self-construal [27] . Women also have a strong need for social interactions [28] . For example, within a formal online learning environment they send more interactive messages than men do and are more interested in all forms of assistance from others [29] . In the same manner, women are more likely than men to express concern about and responsibility for the well-being of others and less likely than men to support materialism and competition [30] . Recent biological evidence suggests an explanation for the notion of women as more communal by determining that the female hormone progesterone is negatively correlated to competitiveness [31] [32] .

[33] points out that gender segmentation has increased as marketers have recognized that women are a lucrative market. Specifically, they realize that decisions about financial services involve both men and women, and financial decisions are sometimes made as a couple [3] . Hence, understanding the differences between males and females about banking services is critical for the bank’s success [1] .

Earlier research presented conflicting findings regarding the differential importance of personal service as a bank selection criterion. Some researchers have found that women are more concerned about the friendliness of the staff (for example: tellers who smile, feeling at home in the bank, polite bank personnel) [8] [34] - [36] . However, other researchers have claimed that men are more concerned about personal attention and service for gaining recognition (personal contact with bank officers, one-on-one communication or contact branch manager and banking by phone) [33] [35] .

Similar conflicting results were found regarding convenience of the bank. Some research has showed that it is more important for women [1] [8] . Other researchers claimed it is more important for men [40] . Finally, some scholars have claimed that convenience is important for both: one stop banking and the ability to bank at any branch for men, and closeness to home or work place and parking facilities for women [35] .

The results with regard to the relative importance of the safety of one’s funds were also equivocal. [37] determined that this issue was more important for men, [34] found it was particularly important for women, and [38] claimed it was important for both. Similar conflicting results with regard to speedy and efficient service also emerged. Some research found it to be important for both men and women [37] [39] . [38] explained that this issue might be more important to women who still spent more time than men on childcare and were in a rush to finish their financial affairs and head home. Whereas [35] found that women only rated banks based on minimum waiting times, [40] claimed it was an important factor for men as well in choosing a bank.

In some studies, men were more concerned with service fees than women [5] - [7] . In others, women placed greater emphasis on financial benefits such as interest on saving accounts [8] [9] and prioritized channel saving and seeking value from credit card usage [40] . Finally, some scholars determined that costs such as minimum deposits or interest on loans were important factors for both men and women [39] [41] .

Overall, the empirical results of past research are equivocal regarding the importance of cost, speed of services and efficiency and the importance of personalized services (interaction and recognition) for men and women. Such conflicting findings leave us without a specific, clear direction in terms of the factors that are important for men vs. women in choosing a bank.

The contradictory findings might be a result of differences in the samples, time periods, and methods. Most studies in bank selection criteria have been conducted by asking the respondents to note what traits were important to them when choosing a bank (e.g., [37] [38] [42] - [44] ). Such direct questioning suffers from the flaws of social desirability; respondents might be unwilling or unable to report answers due to the desire to defend their ego or engage in impression management, resulting in data that are systematically biased toward the respondents’ perceptions of what is correct or socially acceptable. These issues may lead to unwarranted theoretical or practical conclusions regarding purchase motivations [45] .

The differential effect of gender on consumers’ evaluation of a single brand cannot capture the differences in real selection situations, when one needs to choose between alternative brands, a more realistic situation [46] . Therefore, as detailed in the method section, in the descriptive study, we adopt an indirect approach to assessing the saliency of the various attributes of different banks by querying the participants about their perceptions about real banks and asking them to choose one of them. Our main study explores whether in a real choice setting, consumers make choices in accordance with the evolutionary theory.

Based on the literature describing women as more relational and men as more instrumental, we posited that men would choose banks based on functional considerations such as fees, and women would be more concerned with experiential considerations such as personal service and the courtesy of the employees. Thus, we constructed two hypotheses that we tested for the first time in a situation where the respondents had to make a real choice about which bank to use.

H1―when choosing a bank, men will place greater emphasis on functional attributes such as costs than women will.

H2―when choosing a bank, women will place greater emphasis on experiential attributes such as personal service than men will.

Our methodology uses a two-step approach. The first involves an exploratory study to determine the various service attributes consumers consider when choosing a bank. The second stage involves a descriptive research design that was conducted at two different levels. First, we determined how different five banks were one from one another at the aggregate level and which attributes contributed to this difference. Second, we conducted a data analysis at the group level based on gender differences.

Our modeling approach uses the multinomial logit model (MNL) that is based on choice theory and random utility modes [47] - [49] . We created a probabilistic description of checking account preferences based on the offerings of five existing banks (Bank H, Bank L, Bank M, Bank B, and Bank T). In order to capture gender heterogeneity, we applied the model to the two groups of consumers separately.