Consumers respond to androgynous models in ads in very different ways depending on an individual’s own gender and sexual orientation, according to a paper published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Kelly Cowart (University of South Florida) and Phillip Wagner (College of William & Mary) discussed this topic in their article, “An investigation of androgyny and sexual orientation in advertising: How androgynous imagery and sexual orientation impact advertisement and brand attitudes.”

Key findings

• In one of two studies informing the paper, an ad with an androgynous model generated “more opinions” from research participants, possibly because this imagery...