Sex Appeals That Appeal: Negative Sexual Self-Schema as a Moderator of the Priming Effects of Sexual Ads on Accessibility

In an experiment (N=73), priming methodology was used to test the prediction that sexual content in advertising would influence the accessibility of sexual constructs in memory. Sexual self-schema was theorized to play a moderating role in this process. After viewing perfume ads that utilized either sex appeals or non-sexual appeals, female undergraduates completed a lexical decision task. Partial support was found for the accessibility hypothesis, but contrary to predictions, positive sexual self-schema did not play as important moderating role in the accessibility of sexual constructs as negative sexual self-schema. Possible explanations for these results are discussed and a new model for the moderating role of negative sexual self-schema is proposed.