The Effects of Gender-Stereotyped Radio Commercials1

It is well established that mass-media content often presents strong traditional gender stereotypes, but relatively little is known of the effects of exposure to such content. This study investigates the impact of gender-stereotyped radio commercials on listeners' self-ratings of masculinity and femininity and on the efficiency with which they performed memory tasks that included gender-stereotyped trait terms. No effect on self-rating was obtained. Clear effects on information processing efficiency were found, with participants exposed to the stereotyped commercials showing superior performance on memory for trait words and on a secondary task. It is concluded that repetitive exposure to gender stereotypes via the media does promote the accessibility of stereotype-related cognitions.