SEXUAL CONTENT INDUCED DELAYS IN UNPRIMED LEXICAL DECISIONS - GENDER AND CONTEXT EFFECTS

Two experiments are reported in which subjects made unprimed lexical d ecisions where the targets included sexual, romantic, and neutral word s. predicted gender differences in lexical decision times are found. W omen delayed their lexical decisions when the target was sexual and th e delay was present, but reduced, when the target word was romantic. F or men these delays, while in the same direction, were smaller and fai led to attain statistical significance. Data were collected on the sev eral characteristics of the target words. We found that word familiari ty influenced decision rime but could not account for the word content induced delay. Similarly, neither word emotionality nor word acceptab ility accounted for the delay. Finding a strong effect of sexual word content for women in unprimed lexical decisions makes it clear that th e effect is present at very basic levels of information processing. Th is suggests that it is a pervasive characteristic of the responding to sexual stimuli that occurs throughout much of cognitive activity.