Executive functioning and decision making in men who look at advertising stimuli with sexual content

Baeceló, Ernesto | 2018-03-02

Introduction: Decision making is determined by executive functioning (cognition), but also by other environmental and emotional elements inside the process. However, until now, studies that take into account both the cognitive elements and the characteristics of the stimuli when making a decision are unknown. Objective: The purpose of this research was to determine the influence of advertising stimuli with sexual content in decision making, taking into account neuropsychological variables such as executive functioning and. experimental conditions such as the order in which the stimuli are presented. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was carried out, with a sample of 60 subjects, of male gender and aged between 18 and 35 years of age, with normal and low executive functions (measured through validated neuropsychological protocols), whom were showed an advertisement with and without sexual stimuli, presented in different order. Subsequently, a preference survey of the stimuli was carried out. Results: The results show the influence of the stimulus with sexual content on decision making in men with executive functioning below what was expected, when they observe first the stimulus without sexual content and then the stimulus with sexual content. Conclusion: This suggests the influence of executive functions (including working memory) in decision making, when stimuli with sexual content are involved