The Impact of Physically Attractive Models on Advertising Evaluations

Abstract

A considerable amount of social science research suggests an individual's initial perception of and reaction to another individual are affected by the physical attractiveness of the other person. The authors attempt to assess whether this general finding applies to people's perceptions of advertisements. Specifically, they assess the impact of attractiveness of male and female models on subjects’ evaluations of ads, and seek to determine whether the reactions depend on the sex of the ad reader or on the type of product being advertised.