Effects of erotophobia on the persuasiveness of condom. advertisements containing strong or weak arguments

Individual differences in erotophobia affect the way people process sexuall y related information, such as information concerning safer sex. This study tests the hypothesis that people who are erotophobic are less likely to ta ke the central route in information processing about sexual material as des cribed by the elaboration likelihood model. Female college students (n = 94 ) were randomly assigned to view a condom advertisement containing either s trong or weak arguments. Consistent with predictions, all women were more p ersuaded by the advertisement containing strong rather than weak arguments. However, erotophobic women were also relatively more persuaded by weak arg uments than were erotophilic women. Erotophobia appears to interfere with c entral route processing of sexually related messages.