Your Cheating Cognitions: Young Women’s Responses to Television Messages about Infidelity

Abstract

The current study examined how exposure to a depiction of sexual infidelity on television influenced women’s responses to hypothetical infidelity. In addition, we examined three individual factors as moderators for these effects: experience with infidelity, infidelity concern, and loyalty concern. In a laboratory experiment, young women were exposed to a media narrative featuring either a romantic relationship, the same relationship but with one partner engaging in sex outside the relationship, or a control narrative before completing measures of reactions to hypothetical relationship transgressions. Results indicated that women who had a cheating partner and exhibited high levels of concern about infidelity reported a lower tolerance for infidelity following exposure to a television narrative featuring infidelity.

Notes

¹ A univariate ANOVA was conducted to compare the three largest racial groups in the sample (Asian/Asian American, White, and Hispanic/Latino), F(2,178) = 4.06, p = .02. Asian (M = 1.92, SD = .64) and White (M = 1.87, SD = .52) participants did not significantly differ in their ratings of infidelity tolerance; however, both groups had significantly higher ratings compared to Hispanic/Latino (M = 1.62, SD = .99) participants. Although Hispanic/Latino participants made up approximately one-third of the sample (N = 35), ultimately, we did not include a 3-way race variable as a moderator; the numbers are such that including these racial categories as moderators in study analyses render cell sizes prohibitively small.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cassandra Alexopoulos

Cassandra Alexopoulos (Ph.D., University of California Davis, 2017) is a professor in the Communication Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research interests include cognitions related to relationships, and how media can activate or cultivate those cognitions. She uses a variety of methods to understand how media may influence viewers' romantic and sexual behaviors, including lab experiments, surveys, and content analyses.

Laramie D. Taylor

Laramie D. Taylor (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2005) is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Davis. His research interests include the uses and effects of traditional and new media, including effects related to sex and sexuality, gender, violence, and idealized bodies. Dr. Taylor also studies media involvement and fans.