Psychology Commons^™

Sex Differences In Television Viewing And Attention: Do Males Really Channel Surf More Than Females?, Melissa Morrison

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Channel surfing is often thought of as a male-dominated pastime; however, previously there was no objective data supporting this conclusion. In the present study television viewing and channel surfing were monitored in 44 college students who simultaneously performed an auditory vigilance task. In addition, a survey was administered to determine self-reported individual television viewing habits. Results showed that males channel surfed at almost twice the rate of females. In addition, after the first test tone they generally detected more tones in the vigilance task than females. It was concluded the high channel surfing rate of males reflected lower levels of …