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Sexercise: The Influence of Sexualized Exercise Advertisements on Affect Towards Exercise and Exercise Intentions

Murray, Ashley B.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8506-7009
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1490355417579895

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Arts, University of Toledo, Psychology - Experimental.
In the past decade or so, we have seen an upsurge in advertisements aimed to increase exercise behaviors with limited success. Although success has been achieved in increasing awareness that exercise is beneficial to health (e.g. Bassuk & Manson, 2005), less than half of Americans engage in the American Heart Association’s recommended amount of weekly exercise (CDC, 2014). This has led to the increase in the use of different types of techniques to boost the effectiveness of exercise-related advertisements. One type of technique commonly used is sexualization. Whereas some research suggests that sexualization could be used as an effective technique in media advertisements to increase exercise intentions, other research suggests both that sexualization would not be an effective technique to increase exercise intentions and that sexualization of women has a variety of negative effects on women, including inducing negative affect. Recent research exploring what types of health messages are most influential at changing exercise behaviors and intentions outline the use of positive affect to change how people feel about engaging in exercise. This also suggests that the negative affect experienced after viewing sexualized advertisements may decrease exercise intentions. A pilot study was conducted to examine existing exercise-related advertisements for use in the present study. The pilot study found that after college students viewed sexualized advertisements, they felt less positive about engaging in exercise and believed that exercise was less beneficial than after viewing three different types of comparison advertisements. The Main Study extended the Pilot Study by filling in methodological gaps to explore the mediating effect of affect, and the moderating effect of several key variables on women’s intentions to engage in exercise after viewing exercise-related advertisements. Two hundred fifty-two female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to view and rate exercise advertisements of one of four types: neutral, positive, inspirational, or sexualized. We hypothesized that sexualized exercise advertisements will negatively influence participants’ intentions to exercise by inducing negative feelings, particularly negative feelings about ones’ body. Additionally, we hypothesized that Enjoyment of Sexualization would statistically moderate the relationship between advertisement type and affect and exercise intentions. Results indicated that the individual difference in enjoyment of sexualization produced an interaction between advertisement type and intentions to engage in exercise in the future. Specifically, regression analyses found that when those who scored higher in enjoyment of sexualization viewed sexualized ads, they had significantly higher intentions to engage in exercise after viewing the neutral advertisements, and significantly lower intentions after viewing any of the other types of advertisements. Contrary to Pilot Study findings, there was no main effect of advertisement condition on the main dependent variables, and no other hypotheses were supported. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, in addition to notable limitations and future directions.
Andrew Geers, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Jason Rose, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
John Jasper, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
103 p.
Psychology
Affect; Exercise; Sexualization; Advertisements

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Murray, A. B. (2017). Sexercise: The Influence of Sexualized Exercise Advertisements on Affect Towards Exercise and Exercise Intentions [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1490355417579895

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Murray, Ashley. Sexercise: The Influence of Sexualized Exercise Advertisements on Affect Towards Exercise and Exercise Intentions. 2017. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1490355417579895.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Murray, Ashley. "Sexercise: The Influence of Sexualized Exercise Advertisements on Affect Towards Exercise and Exercise Intentions." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1490355417579895

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1490355417579895
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© 2017, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Sexercise: The Influence of Sexualized Exercise Advertisements on Affect Towards Exercise and Exercise Intentions by Ashley B. Murray is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.