Examining Third-Person Perceptions in the Context of Sexually Oriented Advertising

Abstract

A limited amount of research has been undertaken to investigate third-person perceptions as persuasion in the context of sexually oriented advertising. This study examined whether sexually oriented advertising and gender differences would yield significant influences on third-person perceptions and whether participants’ sexual cognition would moderate their third-person perceptions. Results showed that sexually oriented advertising, gender differences, and sexual cognition were significant factors that dominated the third-person perceptions. After exposure to sexually oriented advertising, females were led to a stronger degree of the third-person perceptions than males. Moreover, the participants with a more negative level of sexual cognition had a stronger degree of the third-person perceptions than those with a more positive level of sexual cognition after exposure to sexually oriented advertising.

KEYWORDS:

• third-person perception
• sexually oriented advertising
• gender difference
• sexual cognition

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Marcilene Thompson-Hayes for her help with the early version of this manuscript, as well as Dr. Hooshang Beheshti and the anonymous reviewers for pointing out the potential limitations of this study. This paper was presented at the 59th Convention of International Communication Association in Chicago, IL.