Elsevier

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 41, December 2014, Pages 357-364
Computers in Human Behavior

Exposure to sexualized media content and selective attention for sexual cues: An experimental study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.10.037Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Experiment to test how sexualized media exposure affects later attention allocation.

  • Participants watched a sexual or control video before completing dot and word tasks.

  • All participants showed selective attention for explicitly displayed sexual cues.

  • Participants in sexual video conditions were quicker to detect hidden sexual cues.

  • Results may contribute to a better understanding of how sexual schemas are formed.

Abstract

This study examined whether exposure to sexualized media influences the subconscious process of attention allocation to subsequently encountered stimuli. One hundred twenty-three participants (61 females) between 18 and 23 years (Mage = 19.99 years) watched a 3-min video clip containing either neutral, sexually more explicit, or sexually less explicit imagery, before completing a dot detection task measuring selective attention for explicitly displayed sexual stimuli and a word search task measuring attention toward hidden sexual cues. Results of the dot detection task indicated that participants in all conditions were slower to detect the dot in trials including sexual stimuli, suggesting absorption by these stimuli. Results of the word search task indicated that participants in the two sexual video conditions, compared to participants in the neutral video condition, were quicker to detect a sexual word in the matrix, albeit only if they completed this task before the dot detection task. There were no differences in the number of sexual words found between video conditions. Our findings point out the importance of studying effects of sexualized media exposure on subconscious cognitive processes in young people, as such effects can provide us insights into how sexualized media content is processed and how sexual schemas are formed and strengthened.

Introduction

In recent decades, research has focused much attention on the effects of exposure to sexualized media content on the behaviors and cognitions of adolescents and young adults. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have reported a number of negative or problematic sexual outcomes related to sexualized media exposure, including, but not limited to, earlier sexual initiation, a higher number of sexual partners, engaging in risky sex, and permissive attitudes about sex (see Owens, Behun, Manning, & Reid, 2012, for a review). Self-reported positive outcomes have also been reported, including increased sexual knowledge and a better sex life (Boies, 2002, Hald and Malamuth, 2008, Löfgren-Mårteson and Månsson, 2010). Furthermore, in the domain of behavioral economics, experimental studies have demonstrated that exposure to sexual stimuli is associated with more risky and impulsive decision-making (Ariely and Loewenstein, 2006, Lawyer, 2008, Van den Bergh et al., 2008). Less is known, however, about how exposure to sexualized media influences more implicit, automatic, and subconscious cognitive processes in young people. Studying such processes is important for several reasons. First, they may inform us about possible additional and immediate effects of sexualized media exposure that are difficult to reliably assess through self-report measures. Second, learning about the cognitive mechanisms involved in the processing of sexualized media content can offer us important insights into the underlying processes between media exposure and sexual behaviors and cognitions. Despite the increased focus on sexualized media exposure among young people, knowledge on causal effects and/or mediating factors is still limited (Owens et al., 2012).

The current study contributes to the ongoing public and scientific debate about the effects of sexualized media content on young people by experimentally testing the effects of exposure to such content on a specific implicit, subconscious cognitive process: the allocation of attention to subsequently encountered stimuli. Specifically, this study addresses the question whether exposure to sexualized media content results in selective attention (also referred to as attention bias or attentional capture) for sexual cues relative to competing cues in a sample of young adults. Selective attention has been found to influence behavior (e.g. racial discrimination; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) and emotional states (e.g. drug craving; Duka & Townshend, 2004), and may therefore be an important component in understanding how sexualized media content is linked to sexual behaviors and cognitions.

Several models exist that can explain why and how exposure to sexualized media content may influence the allocation of attention, and, eventually, may result in selective attention for sexual cues. The current study is based on a combination of key elements from Priming Theory, Information Processing models, and the Media Practice Model.

Priming Theory asserts that individuals’ judgments and behaviors are often based on existing constructs or schemas in memory (Berkowitz, 1984, Jo and Berkowitz, 1994). Stimuli such as media content can activate these schemas, and individuals then draw upon them when making decisions. Priming theory generally distinguishes two phenomena: accessibility and biased processing (Davies, Zhu, & Brantley, 2007). Accessibility refers to the idea that repeated activation of cognitive schemas leads to their strengthening and their rapid availability. Hence, frequent and recent exposure to sexualized media content would make sexual schemas in memory more readily accessible. Biased processing occurs when exposure to certain stimuli affects the way in which subsequent information is interpreted. In this sense, exposure to sexualized media content may make conceptually related information or experiences more salient, and may even cause ambiguous cues in the environment to be interpreted in a sexual way – which in turn may shape attitude formations or actual behavior. It is important to note that the phenomena of accessibility and biased processing often occur together. That is, exposure to a prime can enhance the accessibility of a schema, which in turn may serve as a lens through which subsequent information and experiences are interpreted (Davies et al., 2007, Jo and Berkowitz, 1994). A classic example of the priming effects of sexualized media content is the study by McKenzie-Mohr and Zanna (1990). In this study, male participants were exposed to either an explicitly sexual or a control video, before being interviewed by a female research assistant. Participants in the sexual video condition were, relative to participants in the control group, more sexually motivated as indicated by a reduced interpersonal distance between themselves and the female research assistant during the interview, and by the fact that they recalled significantly more physical features of the research assistant and significantly less of what she had said. Hence, exposure to sexualized media content can draw attention to sexual cues by activating sexual schemas which form the basis for subsequent judgments and social interactions (Davies et al., 2007).

In the field of Information Processing, it is also predicted that schema activation is involved in judgment and decision-making following exposure to stimuli. Some of these models, such as the Information Processing Model of Sexual Arousal (Barlow, 1986, Janssen et al., 2000), incorporate an emotional or motivational component in explaining how information in the environment is perceived, encoded and, translated into action. Specifically, these models suggest that judgments and behaviors are not only dependent upon the activation of (readily accessible) schemas in memory following stimuli exposure, but that encountered cues are first evaluated as either positive, negative, or neutral in meaning, and that this appraisal in turn determines whether or not attention is maintained to the cue. Hence, individuals direct more attention to stimuli that are more emotionally salient to them (e.g. Barlow, 1986, Janssen et al., 2000, Laier et al., 2013), which in turn may activate already accessible schemas through which subsequent information is perceived (Ward, 2002). This idea is in line with a study by Wright and Adams (1999), who found increased selective attention for stimuli depicting one’s preferred gender.

The idea that emotional salience plays a role in the processing of and attention directed to sexual cues is also in line with media and communication models such as the Media Practice Model (Brown, 2000, Steele and Brown, 1995). A key notion within this model is that media users are not just passive spectators who are uniformly influenced by media’s messages, but active agents who select, interpret, and apply media based on their needs and preferences at that time. This suggests that exposure to sexualized media content has stronger effects on attention processes for individuals with a stronger interest in such content. Hence, for experimental effects to have maximum real world implications and utility, it is important to consider them in light of regular media preferences and exposure (Ward, 2002).

Taken together, the models described above suggest that exposure to sexualized media content can result in selective attention for sexual cues by increasing the accessibility of sexual schemas, which then form the context in which subsequently encountered information is appraised. Moreover, this would be especially the case for those with a preference for, or a positive evaluation of this content.

To measure selective attention for sexual cues, experimental procedures have been designed. The dot detection task (MacLeod, Mathews, & Tata, 1986) is an example of a procedure that allows for the assessment of individuals’ attention allocation. A typical dot detection task involves the simultaneous and brief presentation of two images: one from a category of stimuli of interest (e.g. sexual images) and another from an emotionally neutral category, although most versions of the task also include trials containing two images from the neutral category. Immediately after these images disappear, a dot appears where one of the two images was located. Participants are instructed to indicate as quickly as possible the location of the dot on each trial. In studies in which the stimuli of interest were threatening or unpleasant (e.g. spiders), faster reaction times on trials where the dot appears in the area of these stimuli by an experimental sample (e.g. spider phobics compared to controls) have been explained in terms of an attention bias or hypervigilance for these stimuli (Yiend & Mathews, 2001). However, attention biases in the opposite direction (i.e., prolongation of reaction times when the dot appears in the area of the stimuli of interest) have been documented in cases where the target stimuli were pleasant to the experimental sample (e.g. smoke stimuli for heavy smokers; Hogarth, Mogg, Bradley, Duka, & Dickinson, 2003). These prolonged reaction times have been interpreted as increased attentional engagement or absorption by the stimuli in the experimental sample, which hampers execution of the task, i.e., detection of the dot (Prause et al., 2008, Wright and Adams, 1999). Such absorption by pleasant stimuli implies that reaction times are even more delayed on trials where the dot appears in the area of the neutral image, because participants will have to disengage from the pleasant stimulus and reorient their attention to a different area on the screen in order to locate the dot (Posner & Cohen, 1984). As sexual stimuli are, at least to most people, pleasant or interesting rather than threatening, the current study follows the interpretation by Hogarth et al. (2003) and Wright and Adams (1999), which suggests that selective attention for sexual stimuli is reflected by prolonged reaction times [RTs] for trials that include sexual images.

The dot detection task can be used to measure allocation of attention to explicitly displayed information or cues. However, it is conceivable that exposure to sexualized media content can, through the phenomenon of biased processing (Davies et al., 2007, Jo and Berkowitz, 1994), also result in an increased attention toward less prominently displayed or more hidden sexual cues. In order to test this assumption, we developed a word search task consisting of a letter matrix in which both sexual words and words from a neutral category (household objects) were hidden. In this task, selective attention for sexual cues would be reflected by a quicker detection and/or the identification of a larger number of words from a sexual category as opposed to a neutral category.

The present study contributes to existing research on the effects of sexualized media content by using an experimental design to examine how exposure to such content influences the subconscious process of attention allocation. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to sexualized media content results in selective attention for subsequently encountered sexual cues, both in settings in which they are explicitly displayed and in which they are hidden. In doing so, we compared performance on the attention tasks described above between participants exposed to a sexual video clip and participants exposed to a nonsexual control video clip. The following research questions were addressed:

  • 1.

    Does exposure to sexual imagery result in selective attention for explicitly displayed sexual cues, as indicated by prolonged reaction times for trials including sexual images in the dot detection task?

On the basis of assumptions of priming theory that behaviors and judgments often rely on the accessibility of schemas in memory and that exposure to sexual stimuli can activate sexual schemas, we expected that participants exposed to a sexual video clip, relative to participants exposed to a neutral video clip, would demonstrate selective attention for the sexual images in the dot detection task. Moreover, following the absorption and reorientation of attention hypotheses, we expected that this selective attention would be reflected by longer RTs on trials that included sexual images (absorption), especially when the dot replaced the neutral image in these trials (reorientation of attention).

  • 2.

    Does exposure to sexual imagery result in an increased attention toward implicit or hidden sexual cues, as indicated by a quicker detection and the identification of a larger number of sexual words in a word search task?

On the basis of the notion that exposure to a sexual prime can, through the activation of sexual schemas, result in the biased processing of subsequent environmental cues, we expected that participants exposed to a sexual video clip would be quicker to detect a sexual word in the matrix, as indicated by the first word found being from the sexual rather than the neutral category. Moreover, we expected these participants to find a larger number of sexual words, as reflected in the proportion of sexual words within the total number of words found.

  • 3.

    Are the effects of exposure to sexual content on attention processes larger for participants who generally seek more exposure to such content?

This question was based on the notion of priming theory that repeated activation of sexual schemas (by frequent and recent exposure to sexual primes) leads to their strengthening and their rapid availability, as well as the assumption of both information processing models and the Media Practice Model that a stronger interest in sexual stimuli increases the amount of attention paid to them and the extent to which they affect further information processing. We therefore expected that differences between the sexual and neutral video conditions in performance on both attention tasks would be especially pronounced for participants who seek exposure to sexualized media content more frequently, as indicated by a higher self-reported use of the Internet for accessing erotic or pornographic websites.

Section snippets

Participants

A total of 131 participants between 18 and 23 years were recruited through social science courses and flyers that were distributed at the campus of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Participants were informed that the purpose of the study was to examine the role of personal characteristics in evaluating video clips. Moreover, participants were told that they would successively complete a questionnaire, watch a video clip that “could possibly contain sexual, violent, or drugs-related imagery”,

Preliminary analyses

Preliminary analyses indicated that participants in the sexually more explicit, sexually less explicit, and neutral video conditions were successfully matched on gender, χ2(1, N = 123) = 2.55, p = .279, and age, F(2, 120) = .00, p = .996, and were comparable in terms of religiosity, χ2(1, N = 123) = 0.64, p = .726, and relationship status, χ2(1, N = 123) = 0.93, p = .630. Moreover, participants in the three video conditions did not differ in their reported frequency of using the Internet for accessing erotic or

Discussion

Despite an increased focus on sexualized media exposure among young people, research to date has paid little attention to the more implicit, subconscious cognitive mechanisms involved in the processing of sexualized media content. The present study aimed to address this gap in the literature by experimentally testing how exposure to sexualized media content influences the allocation of attention to subsequently encountered stimuli. We used a dot detection task to examine whether exposure to a

Conclusion

The present study addressed an important lacuna in the literature on the effects of sexualized media content on young people, by experimentally testing how exposure to such content affects the subconscious process of attention allocation to subsequently encountered stimuli. Our findings offer preliminary support for the idea that sexualized media content has the potential to induce selective attention for both explicitly displayed sexual stimuli and more hidden sexual cues. They point out that

Acknowledgements

Data for the present study were collected as part of a larger longitudinal study conducted in the Netherlands called “Project STARS” (Studies on Trajectories of Adolescent Relationships and Sexuality), which is funded by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Fund for Scientific Research of Sexuality (FWOS) [NWO Grant no. 431-99-018].

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