Same-Sex Couples in Advertisements: An Investigation of the Role of Implicit Attitudes on Cognitive Processing and Evaluation

Abstract

This research examined how implicit attitudes are associated with cognitive processing and selfreported evaluation of advertisements featuring same-sex couples. Hypotheses were posited using the theoretical framework of Social Identity Theory (Tajfel and Turner 1986) and perspectives on implicit attitudes. In Study 1 participants watched and evaluated 10 television advertisements while physiological measures of cognitive and affective processing were collected. Ads varied such that half used same-sex couples as protagonists while the other half used other-sex couples. Participants demonstrated less positive responses to ads featuring samesex couples. Physiological and self-reported responses were associated with implicit attitudes toward homosexuality; negative implicit attitudes were associated with more negative affect, less attention, less positivity, and less liking to ads featuring same-sex couples. Two subsequent studies replicated these findings in non-student samples, indicating that participants preferred ads with other-sex couples (Study 2) and that implicit attitudes were associated with this response (Study 3). This research suggests that implicit attitudes affect processing and evaluation of ads featuring same-sex couples in ways unaccounted for by explicitly-measured attitudes. Results are discussed in terms of advancing theory, furthering understanding of the dynamic processing of ads featuring in-group and out-group members, and practical implications.

Communicating corporate LGBTQ advocacy: A computational comparison of the global CSR discourse

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Minority group favoritism in service encounters

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The New Normal, Lesbian and Gay Themed Advertisements in the Mainstream – Exploring Heterosexual Responses to Lesbian and Gay Themed Adverts in South Africa

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