Sexual Liberalism in Media Scale

What it measures

Measures a consumer's general attitude toward the appropriateness of sexual content in advertising, television, and other media. Originally developed as a measure of sexual liberalism — a trait-like disposition toward accepting or rejecting the use of sex in commercial communication. Higher scores reflect more permissive attitudes toward sexual content in media contexts.

Response format

7-point Likert-type; mixed anchors by item (see notes)

Scale items

• In my opinion, there is too much sex on TV programs.
• There is too much degradation of women and men as sex objects in the media today.
• In general, do you like or dislike the use of sex in advertising?

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Scale created by Mittal and Lassar (2000) who called it 'sexual liberalism'. Used by Theodorakis, Koritos, and Stathakopoulos (2015) in research on advertising rhetoric. Alpha of .89 and unidimensional structure confirmed in the latter study; validity not discussed. Items 1 and 2 are reverse-coded relative to the liberalism construct (higher agreement = more conservative). Item 3 uses a like/dislike anchor rather than agree/disagree. Response scale format not explicitly stated by Theodorakis et al. (2015) — assumed 7-point based on their other scales. Researchers should note the mixed item directionality when scoring.

Citation

Mittal, B., & Lassar, W.M. (2000). Sexual liberalism as a determinant of consumer response to sex in advertising. Journal of Business and Psychology, 15(1), 111-127.

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