TV Commercials Influence What You Want to Do in Life

If women find their husbands reluctant to fold the laundry or wash the dishes, they may want to hide the television remote. New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that men, in particular, are influenced by television commercials that more often portray them in a career environment than doing domestic duties.

The results are reported in “Portrayals of Gender in Television Commercials and the Effects on Achievement Aspirations of Audiences” by Valerie Hooper, a graduating senior in sociology who studied how men and women are portrayed in television commercials and how they respond to them. She presented her research recently at UNH’s Undergraduate Research Conference.