Recent discovery? Men recall fewer facts from the news when it is presented by a sexy anchorwoman.
Two Indiana University scholars report that, for male viewers, “emphasis on the sexual attractiveness of female news anchors distracts from memory formation for news content.” They found that men’s focus and subsequent memory were more on the broadcaster’s appearance than on the material she was delivering.
Maria Elizabeth Grabe and Lelia Samson, writing in Communication Research described a clever experiment that led them to this conclusion. They created two versions of their own short newscast, both of which featured the same 24-year-old female anchor, dressed and made up in different ways.
The researchers found the men recalled “significantly more information watching the unsexualized anchor deliver news than her sexualized version.” For women, the opposite was true, but the effect was far less pronounced.
The study provides evidence for a basic theory of evolutionary psychology: When it comes to processing information, visual tends to trump verbal.
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