“Frankly, My Dear, I Just Might Give a damn:” An Experiment Investigating Preexisting Beliefs and Reasons to Watch Romantic Comedies on Reports of Beliefs, Mood, and Enjoyment

ABSTRACT

This multiple message, pretest-posttest control group design experiment investigated whether different motivations to view romantic comedies and preexisting romantic beliefs (e.g. love conquers all, soulmate) influenced mood, enjoyment, and romantic beliefs. Results of 358 undergraduate participants demonstrate that romantic beliefs prior to viewing predicted reduced beliefs after viewing a challenge film, and greater enjoyment after viewing an ideal film. Watching in order to learn or be entertained led to stronger romantic beliefs in the ideal condition, whereas watching for entertainment led to more enjoyment and a more positive mood than did watching for other reasons, regardless of the content. Sheer viewing led to stronger romantic beliefs in the ideal condition.

KEYWORDS:

• Experiment
• motivations to view
• movies
• relationship beliefs
• romantic ideals
• uses and gratifications theory

Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge Emily O’Connor, Jourdan Thompson, Madison Price, Reed Maday, Carly Greer, Lorraine Dangor, Gregory Johnson, and Jamie Ricklin for their contributions to this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).