Two Indiana University scholars report that, for male viewers, “emphasis on the sexual attractiveness of female news anchors distracts from memory formation for news content.” They found that “men’s cognitive mechanisms favored visual over verbal processing,” which is a delicate way of saying their focus — and subsequent memory — are more on the broadcaster’s appearance than on the material she was delivering…This probably explains why I can never remember what the weather will be after watching the news. Several of the LA stations have female weatherpersons with, shall we say "assets", that can be rather distracting. Let's just say they could point out a high pressure system without ever lifting their arms.
Looking at the data a different way, when the anchor had a desexualized appearance, men retained more of the information she presented than women. But when she was dolled up, the men’s retention level dropped to the point where the two genders retained the same amount of content…
It also confirms something women have long suspected: A sexually charged image can flood the male brain, stimulating its visual processing component “to levels that demand close to full cognitive capacity.”
I guess I better get my weather online.
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So a woman is able to retain the same amount of information as a man -as long as the man is distracted by a gorgeous woman.
There was a woman doing the weather on some Kansas City station in the late '70s, noted for her "warm fronts". My wife didn't think the woman was busty until she saw a broadcast from the top of a building during a snowstorm and saw the tall man she was interviewing looking down at the aforementioned warm fronts.
Our news reporting is embarrassing.
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