Self‐referencing as a mediator of the effectiveness of sex‐role portrayals in advertising

This research examines the extent to which individuals self-reference advertising portrayals and the consequences of doing so. A composite self-referencing measure is developed relative to how self-referencing has been defined and induced in past research. Individuals who exhibited high levels of self-referencing of stimulus advertisements elicited more positive attitudes and cognitive responses than those who exhibited low levels of self-referencing. Self-referencing was also found to mediate the effect of various sex-role portrayals on respondents' attitudes.