Is Life a Romantic Novel? The Relationship Between Attitudes About Intimate Relationships and the Popular Media

Note that this research was not specifically aimed at romance readers: the authors' "questionnaire was designed by the authors to investigate subjects’ exposure to various types of popular media, including television programs, movies, music, books, magazines, and tabloid newspapers" (228) and

An a priori definition of popular romantic media was considered by the authors to include TV day/night serials, TV family sitcoms, TV action/adventure programs, TV weekly dramas, TV sports, romance movies, comedy movies, action/adventure movies, romantic novels, action/adventure novels, women’s magazines, men’s magazines, sports magazines, tabloids, rock music, country/western music, and fairy tales. (229)

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The results of this study support the hypothesis that individuals who are more exposed to the popular romantic media will have more dysfunctional/unrealistic beliefs about intimate relationships.

As these data are correlational in nature, there is no clear indication of causation. Thus, does the media create dysfunctional beliefs about relationships or do those people with dysfunctional beliefs expose themselves more to the popular media to confirm or reinforce those beliefs? Or is this finding related to some third variable? (233)

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Other interesting findings regarding the relationship of specific types of media to unrealistic beliefs were the significant media predictors of Sexual Perfectionism. The most significant predictor was listening to rock music. [...] Another significant predictor of the Sexual Perfectionism subscale was the reading of psychology self-help books (which purport to improve communication skills and willingness to be flexible). Subjects who reported that they read self-help books more often endorsed the belief that sex should always be perfect and that they should be perfect sexual partners. (233)