Ads showing sexy women may make male consumers less charitable

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 16-Sep-2014

Contact: Mary-Ann Twist
University of Chicago Press Journals

Do ads showing sexy women make male consumers less charitable?

What happens when you use images of sexy women to attract men's attention? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, male consumers who are shown images of sexy women feel less connected to other people and are less likely to purchase products advertised as benefiting others or make charitable contributions.

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Men who viewed the images of sexy women saw themselves as having fewer similarities with other people and also felt a sharpened disconnectedness between themselves and others, making them less likely to view a product favorably when it was advertised as having benefits to others. These men were also less likely to behave charitably. In one study, men who were shown the images of sexy women were less willing to give $10 to another student (regardless of whether the other student was male or female) and less likely to show support for wildlife protection by purchasing and wearing a t-shirt that promoted the protection of endangered species.

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