Priming Sexual and Romantic Representations in Two Media Environments: Sex Encourages and Romance Discourages Sexual Permissiveness … Sometimes

Two experiments (Ns = 314, 447) were used to evaluate the effectiveness of sexual cues in temporarily increasing young adults' self-reported sexual permissiveness, as well as the effects of romantic cues in temporarily decreasing permissiveness. Participants were exposed to sexual or romantic cues embedded as a theme-defining component of an online game (Study 1) or in advertisements peripheral to the online game (Study 2). Sexual and romantic conditions were compared against a control condition. As hypothesized, participants in the romantic conditions rated themselves lower in sexual permissiveness, compared to participants in the sexual and control conditions, particularly when participants positively evaluated the online game experience. Findings suggest that exposure to entertaining media depictions of two people, as a committed couple, expressing love, as well as lust, for each other might deter young adults from considering engagement in casual sexual encounters indicative of "hookup culture."