Sex Sells: How Men, Women feel about Sexual Imagery in Advertising

First Posted: Dec 04, 2013 11:07 AM EST
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As many advertising companies will use sexual imagery to entice buyers to purchase their product, recent findings show that women in particularly are put-off by most sexual imagery displayed, unless the item involved is very expensive.

"Women generally show spontaneous negative attitudes toward sexual images," notes psychological scientist Kathleen Vohs, a researcher at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues, via a press release. "Sexual economics theory offers a reason why: The use of sexual imagery is inimical to women's vested interest in sex being portrayed as infrequent, special, and rare."

Researchers theorized that if women's attitudes toward sexual imagery might change if it was shown in a highly-valued and exclusive way.

To test this idea, colleagues had male and female participants view advertisements for women's watches in a lab. Some of the advertisements showed explicitly sexual images, while other showed pictures of nature, such as a mountain. The adds also varied with the price for the product. Some said the watch was only $10 while other said it was $1,250.

The study found that women who saw the sexual imagery with the cheap watch rated the ad more negatively than those who saw the sexual imagery with a more expensive product. The negative emotions most commonly seen as a response to the sexual images and  low price add were upset, disgust, unpleasant surprise or anger.

Men on the other hand reported similar reactions regardless of the advertised price of the watch.

Researchers believe the results show typical signs of sexual economics theory.

"Just a quick exposure to an ad was enough for theories of sexual economics to kick in," concludes Vohs, via the release. "This suggests that the process happens at a deep, intuitive level."

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Psychological Science.  

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