Social Media and Sex

In our Research Methods class for Florida International University, we conducted a study for the Fall term. We selected one hundred and twenty students from our university to participate. Out of the 120 students, 52% (n=62) were male and 45% (n=54) were female, and those who did not state their age (n=4). The ages in the study alternated from a minimum of 17 to a maximum of 59 years old with an average of 24. 98 years (SD=7. 74). The statistics for our population were 43. 3% Hispanic Americans (n=52), 25% Caucasian (n=30), 16. 7% African American (n=20), 5% Asian American (n=6), 1. 7% Native American (n=2), and 8% for other (n=10). See Appendix AMaterials and Procedure

All of the potential partakers are asked if they are willing to participate in a study for an FIU research methods class. They are expressed that there are no risks in order to participate and if they are willing to contribute in a survey involving a neutral Facebook post. The students after approving to assist verbally were given one questionnaire out of three questionnaires. Out of the three questionnaires were three different conditions. The first condition is sexuality, the second is romantic and lastly, we have an education condition. We began by asking the students to make sure that they read the Facebook page very carefully and thoroughly since they will need to use their memory in order to answer some questions.

The Facebook page that was used belonged to Riley Washington, no gender or age were given about the person behind the page. Riley’s picture was an unbiased sunset picture, but the ‘’About’’ section was the importance. Riley’s about me describes how they freshly moved to the area but doesn’t know anyone yet and was hoping that they could meet a new friend. Throughout the page, they define themselves as funny and being the center of attention as well as open minded and laid back. The same page was used for the three questionnaires. What did change, were the advertisements that we put at the bottom of the page. This is where the conditions come in. Each page had either sexual ads, romantic ads or educational ads at the bottom of the About Me section. All of the ads in the three questionnaires are the same size to not change the condition of each page.

For the first questionnaire, the three advertisements were all sexually expressive. The ads that where included are as such: An Axe ad with a shirtless man with a body spray next to him. It incorporated a slogan that said ‘’Click here for your Axe moment’’. The next ad promoted a woman drinking with a man while she is wearing a more sexual dress. The last ad was one on a perfume with both a shirtless man wrapping his arms on the woman. These ads were not a portion of Riley’s Facebook page. We used the ‘’Ad choice’’ icon in order to validate the ads. For the following priming condition, we used romance. Again, while using the same page for Riley’s about me, we changed the ads. The first ad included was both a man and a woman enjoying a nice romantic dinner at a Sandal’s Resort. The second ad in which marketed fragrance, showed a couple riding horses in a field.

The last ad was a couple promoting E-Harmony, the online dating website. With the last questionnaire, we used the same about me, but now altering the ads to be more educational. The initial ad is about the University of Florida enquiring new students. The following ad is about Platt College and lastly about ABC Academy. After every student goes through Riley’s About me, the next step is to have them answer ten questions which constituted of how they would describe Riley to be. Using an interval scale, from 1 being ‘Strongly Disagree’ to 6 being ‘Strongly Agree’, they began to partake on Part II. The first question embraced if Riley seemed educated, flirtatious, sensitive, seductive, kind, tender, sentimental, provocative, outgoing and sexy, each individually being scored from 1 ‘Strongly Disagree’ to 6 ‘Strongly Agree’. After they score each individual adjective from a 1 to 6, they go on to the next part. For Part III, the students now had to use an interval scale on how they would describe themselves. From a scale of 1 ‘Strongly Disagree’ to 6 ‘Strongly Agree’ each student had to answer what number qualified them into how assertive, sensitive, confident, emotional, businesslike, romantic, decisive, understand, fearless, and warm-hearted they were. After Part II and III, the student provided their gender, age, race, if English was their first language, if they were a student at FIU, and their relationship status for Part IV. For Part V, students had to check off what gender they believed Riley Washington was, and final, for Part VI, students had to check off without going back to the Facebook Page, what advertisements they saw at the bottom of Riley’s page, if they focused on sexuality, romance or education. With our dependent variables, our study was attentive to see if the advertisements that took not that much would prime the participant into already making a judgement out of Riley without knowing the gender, age, or race. We anticipated that if the ads were sexual, the participant would assume that Riley’s personality was more flirtatious; While changing the condition, if the ads were romantic, would that make Riley still as flirtatious? And if the condition was educational, did the participant believe that Riley was flirtatious or did they find Riley educated, matching the prime.

Results

In order to use our independent condition with our manipulation, A chi square test of independence was calculated comparing the three conditions, sexuality, romance and education. A significant relationship emerged, χ2(2) = 1. 85, p =. 000. More students chose to see Riley sexual (88. 9%) compared to a romantic condition (9. 5%). We ran a One Way ANOVA with Sexuality, Romance, and Education conditions as our independent variables and Riley seeming flirtatious our dependent variable. The One Way ANOVA was significant, F(2, 117) = 4. 44, p =. 014 Tukey post hoc tests revealed that students found Riley to be more sexual (M = 3. 44, SD = 1. 21) significantly more than students who found Riley romantic (M = 2. 81, SD =. 804). Also adding, students had a different perspective and found Riley educated (M = 2. 90, SD =. 983) See Appendix CWe ran an independent samples t-Test with the three conditions (Sexuality, Romance, Education) as our independent variable and Riley seeming flirtatious as our dependent variable. The t-Test was significant, t(76) = 2. 77, p =. 007. The students conditioned the sexuality for the flirtatious adjective (M = 3. 44, SD = 1. 20) significantly faster than customers dressed in sloppy clothes (M = 2. 81, SD =. 804).

See Appendix Discussion

Our prediction was that if the students would generalize Riley being flirtatious they would condition the Facebook page to be sexualized, this is because we primed the ads without the students knowing. With the results, we were able to find that out of all of the conditions, Riley was mostly sexualized in comparison to being romantic and educational. Although, many students also believed that Riley was romantic while choosing adjectives to describe him or her as kind and sensitive. If the students really did look over the ads if they were asked to, would they automatically believe that the ad had anything to do with Riley’s Facebook page.