College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Myth buster

New study by psychology's Brad Bushman reveals that sex doesn't sell .
You've heard the phrase. Many of us probably believe it.

Sex and violence sell.

Brad Bushman, professor of psychology, thought otherwise and a recent study he has conducted would tend to say that he's right.

"Ordinary people often hold beliefs that have no scientific validity. I like to challenge those beliefs," Bushman says. "One of my colleagues calls me a 'myth buster.'

"This study flies in the face of the commonly-held believe that sex and violence sells. It busts that myth wide open."

Bushman's study tested the effects of violence and sex on memory for commercial messages. It compared recall of identical commercials in programs containing violent or sexual content, versus programs without violence and sex.

The study looked at 324 adults (162 men, 162 women) between 18 and 54 years old. This is representative of the adult television viewers that make up 72 percent of the viewing audience and the prime demographics that advertisers cater to.

Participants were tested in small groups, but each worked independently on all tasks. They were told that researchers were studying attitudes toward television programs, but were instead randomly assigned to watch a violent, sexually explicit or neutral television program.

Examples of violent programs were "La Femme Nikita," "Toughman" and "Tour of Duty," all of which had a violent (V) content code, but not a sex (S) content code. Other participants watched a S content code show such as "Son of the Beach," "Man Show" or "Howard Stern." Again none of these shows had a V code.

Six PAX programs, such as "Doc," "Miracle Pets" and "Candid Camera" were used for the neutral programs with neither a S or V code attached. The original commercials were edited out and replaced with the same nine 30-second commercial messages in each program. The products all had broad market appeal (soft drinks, snacks, cereal, laundry detergent).

After viewing the program, viewers were asked to list all of the advertised products they could remember. Twenty-four hours late, they were contacted by phone and asked to name the products shown in the commercials they saw.

The results busted the myth that sex and violence sells.

"The results of this controlled experiment demonstrated that advertiser recall is significantly higher in programs with no sex or violence," Bushman said. "In fact, commercial message recall among viewers is 62 percent higher in programs without violence and sex."

More importantly Bushman says, the participants' ability to recall brands lasts even 24 hours after exposure to the commercial - it was 60 percent higher.

"The results are the same even when you look at gender and age," he said. "I think what's happening when people watch violent or sexy shows that they aren't thinking about laundry detergent or hot dogs.

"They're thinking about sex and violence."

That could lead to advertisers rethinking where they are putting their advertising dollars.

"The bottom line really determines what programs are shown on television," Bushman said. "If advertisers refused to sponsor them, violent and sexually explicit television programs would become extinct."

Just like the myth Brad Bushman just busted.