Does Exposure to Sexualized Media Lead to Boys’ Objectification of Girls and Women?: A Preregistered, Longitudinal Reanalysis of Rousseau et al. (2019)

Background: The issue of whether fictional media can socialize male attitudes toward women remains hotly contested. One recent longitudinal study concluded that exposure to sexualized TV was associated with viewing women as sex objects as well as the objectification of women. However, it was unclear whether these findings were robust. Methods: Original data was obtained. In a preregistered regression design, the association between sexualized television and music videos was longitudinally examined with male sexual dominance, viewing women as sex objects and objectification, controlling for T1 outcome scores and other control variables. The sample included 487 adolescent males from Belgium. Results: No longitudinal association was found between sexualized media variables and any of the outcome variables with proper controls in place. Conclusions: Longitudinal analyses do not support long-term associations between sexualized media and adolescent male objectification of women.