Sex differences towards sexual appeals in advertising : an experimental study of how the use of sexual appeals in advertising influences attitudes and memory

Abstract

This research investigated sex differences towards adverts with sexual appeals and adverts without, as well as the overall differences between adverts using sexual appeals and adverts using non-sexual appeals. A questionnaire was used to measure recall and attitudes of a sample of 81 university students. A significant difference was found between attitudes, with women having a more positive attitude than men. No significant difference was found for recall levels. It was concluded that there are no sex differences in the ability for recall, but men and women differ in their attitudes towards the advert depending on the content.