The cognitive tax of self- objectification; Examining sexually objectifying music videos and female emerging adults' cognitive processing of subsequent advertising

Jennifer Stevens Aubrey, Ashton Gerding

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173-206) posits that a consequence of living in a sexually objectifying culture is self-objectification, a cognitively taxing preoccupation with one's appearance. The present study investigated the effects of exposure to sexual objectification of female artists in music videos, on female emerging adults' self-objectification and their ability to cognitively process subsequent television commercials. Results indicated that exposure to music videos high in sexual objectification induced self-objectification and hindered participants' subsequent performance in encoding visual information from commercials, but did not diminish participants' ability to allocate resources to, or to recall factual information from, the commercials.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)22-32
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Media Psychology
Volume27
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Advertising
  • Cognitive processing
  • Music videos
  • Sexual objectification

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Communication
  • Applied Psychology

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