In a context where beauty plays a fundamental role and where the cult of the body and sexualized communication floods social networks, we propose an analysis that delves into whether this type of communication has the same impact depending on the gender of the recipient. The object of study focuses, therefore, on analyzing the differences in the visual attention and engagement of men and women when exposed to sexualized images, incorporating the variable of whether said perception and feeling is different depending on the image belongs to a peer or an influencer.
We address the following research questions: Does gender influence the connection we experience in the face of sexualized communication? Does the degree of recognition of the sender influence this connection? Do men and women pay attention to the same things?
For this work, Instagram has been used to extract the sample and EEG (neuromarketing) and eyetracking techniques have been applied to an equal audience of men and women, with an equivalent age range and academic training. The results indicate that men feel greater connection when the sender is a peer, while women experience greater connection when the sender is recognized (influencer). In front of visual behavior, men pay more attention to sexualized attributes, regardless of whether it is a peer or an influencer.