Two experiments were used to examine how sexual media primes influence perceptions of an unknown target's sexual characteristics and ultimate ratings of the target's appeal. Participants were randomly assigned to one condition of a fully crossed 3 (control, weak sexual, or strong sexual media prime) × 3 (general, dating, or professional social networking profile) design. Participants were first exposed to a website that contained banner and sidebar advertisements that were either high in explicitness and emphasis on sexual intercourse, low in explicitness and emphasis on intercourse but still related to sex, or devoid of sexual cues altogether. These banner and sidebar areas constituted the prime. Participants then rated the sex-related qualities and overall appeal of a target represented by an online social media profile from Facebook.com, LiveJournal.com, BlackBookSingles.com, or LinkedIn.com. Findings supported the main hypothesis that sexual media enhance the perceived sexual characteristics attributed to the target represented in social media and that these characteristics significantly contribute to evaluating overall appeal. Both sexual media primes yielded effects that were robust across social network profiles. Results are discussed in light of literature that analyzes sexual content in media.
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Carpentier et al. (2014) studied this question.
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