FROM LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT TO SOUL MATE: ROMANTIC IDEALS IN .

FROM LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT TO SOUL MATE: ROMANTIC IDEALS IN POPULARFILMS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH YOUNG PEOPLE‘S BELIEFS ABOUTRELATIONSHIPSBYVERONICA HEFNERDISSERTATIONSubmitted in partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Speech Communicationin the Graduate College of theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011Urbana, IllinoisDoctoral Committee:Professor Barbara J. Wilson, ChairAssociate Professor John P. CaughlinAssociate Professor Kristen HarrisonAssociate Professor Travis L. Dixon

ABSTRACTRomantic comedy films have been popular since motion pictures first entered the mediaworld. Scholars have speculated why these movies remain appealing to viewers and have arguedfor several reasons. These movies might foster hope about real-life romance (Galician, 2004), ordemonstrate that that there are no limits to how love may manifest itself (Harvey, 1998). Despitethis speculation, few studies have systematically investigated the content of these movies or theeffects they may have on viewers. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate thatpotential. In particular, I conducted two studies that explored the nature of romantic ideals inromantic comedy films and their influence on viewer endorsement of romantic beliefs. The firststudy was a content analysis of the themes or romantic ideals embedded in romantic comedies.The second study was a survey designed to explore whether exposure to such films encouragesthe learning of romantic ideals among young people. The theories of uses and gratifications,social cognitive, and cultivation served to inform this project.I first analyzed the content of over 50 top-grossing films from the romantic comedygenre. This process involved identifying the type, nature, and context of romantic idealexpressions that characters in these films make (i.e., idealization of other, soul mate/one & only,love at first sight, love conquers all), as well as the statements that contradict or challenge theseideal themes. In particular, I identified the nature of the source, the type of expression, thenature of the target, and how the expression was reinforced (e.g., rewarded, punished). Inaddition, the content analysis documented the overarching themes of the movies.The results showed that romantic ideals and challenges are prevalent in romantic comedyfilms, both as overarching themes and as relational expressions. Whereas ideals areoverwhelmingly more common as the takeaway message, challenges were featured twice asii

often as ideals were at the expression level. The characters who expressed these ideals andchallenges were predominantly White, adult, and heterosexual, and differed only by sex. Inparticular, male characters most often expressed ideals, whereas female characters most oftenexpressed challenges. As for the context in which these ideals and challenges were expressed,ideals received mostly rewards in the plotline whereas challenges were most often punished.To investigate the impact of this content, I conducted a survey in which I asked 335undergraduate students to report on their romantic comedy movie viewing and their beliefs aboutlove and romance. In particular, I asked them the degree to which they endorsed beliefs aboutromance (i.e., idealization of other, soul mate/one & only, love at first sight, love conquers all). Ialso asked them how often they watched romantic comedies by giving them a list of 20 films (asubsample from the larger list used in Study 1). For the exposure variable, I weighted the filmsby the number of ideal expressions found in each film, as documented by Study 1. I thencontrolled for overall movie viewing and demographic variables, before calculating thepredictive power of romantic comedy viewing on endorsement of beliefs. Results demonstratedthat romantic comedy exposure significantly predicted endorsement of one of the four ideals—idealization of other.After testing for main effects, I also assessed the potential influence of a series ofmoderating variables: relational experience, perceived reality, watching in order to learn,perceived similarity, and sex of participant. The results of the analyses involving moderatorsrevealed one significant association. In particular, individuals who watched these films in orderto learn reported stronger endorsement of romantic ideal beliefs than did those who watched forother reasons. The implications of these results are discussed.iii

Dedicated to my graduate school girls:Sarah Wilson ClabaughRivka DaarNichole EvansMegan Connelly KosovskiSheila Repeta McDanielLaura E. MillerCortney M. MoriartyTracy Kmetz MurphyI would never have studied this topic if it weren‘t for you and those Wednesday nights iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSA dissertation is the culminating project of a doctoral program of study. Although onlymy name appears on the cover of this ―paper,‖ a great many individuals have contributed to itscreation. The words I offer here can never fully express the immense gratitude I feel towards thepeople who have helped me succeed.First and foremost, I must thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. During those timeswhen I wanted to quit, He gave me the strength to persevere. During other moments when Ididn‘t understand my data or I struggled with writer‘s block, He pulled me through theconfusion. I am nothing without my God.The second most important person in this process is a god in the academic world—myadvisor, Dr. Barb Wilson. With wisdom and patience, she guided me through the prospectus anddissertation stages and taught me the value of meticulous rigor. She completely transformed mywriting; and showed me that revision is not a sign of weakness, but rather a mark of commitmentto my craft. At a time in my graduate school career when I felt all might be lost, Barb was theperson who believed in me, gave me a second chance, and chose to invest her valuable time inhopes of my success.I owe an inexpressible amount of gratitude to John Caughlin, a committee member andprofessor that I am proud to call my friend. When I had a statistics problem, JPC helped clearmy bewilderment, often responding within just a few days. He was my interpersonalcommunication expert, and I frequently knocked on his always-open door to pick his brain aboutliterature, methodology, or even professional development. During my graduate tenure, I alsoshared some personal conversations with John for which I am enormously grateful.Kris Harrison deserves a note of thanks for being a constant source of academic inputv

throughout my graduate career. Everything I know about data collection, I owe to her tutelage. Iam so thankful for her involvement, especially during the beginning stages of this project.Travis Dixon challenged me in delightful ways by forcing me to think critically. After each levelin the process, he provided me with detailed notes that helped direct my revisions. Several keycomponents of my dissertation were inspired by or refined based on the input of these two dearcommittee members, both of whom are giants in the field of media effects.I must thank my parents, Gary and Linda, for instilling into me the value of education andshowing me how to teach myself. My mom was a prayer warrior throughout this journey, anddeserves a vast amount of thanks for that.I owe a great deal of gratitude to my aunt and uncle, Sheryl and Jeff. As my ―secondparents,‖ their support was unmatched.To my siblings—Jeremy, Josh, James, and Tracy—I say thank you for challenging me inways that extend beyond my profession. You are funny, supportive, and a network I truly value.To my best friend Smalls, thank you for being my prayer warrior, my grad schoolpartner-in-crime, and someone who helped revive my self-esteem during those frequent momentsof insecurity. My other grad school friends put up with my mood swings and helped me unwindand relax – thank you CMOR and KDRO for that.I want to thank Mary Strum for copy editing my final draft, and helping with criticalsteps along the way. I must also thank Margie Salmon, Rhonda Baumgart, Susana VazquezWeigel, and Amy Holland for providing office assistance all of these years. Thank you to ErinGreen, Greta Nudel, Hannah Prince, Katie Kuhn, Ramine Nimrouzi, and Vince Vercelli forcoding all of the movies in Study 1. It was a great year and I enjoyed working with all of you.Finally, to Sheesh, what can I say? One way or the other, you motivated me to finish vi

TABLE OF CONTENTSLIST OF TABLES . viiiLIST OF FIGURES . ixCHAPTER 1: ROMANTIC COMEDIES AS SOCIALIZERS .1CHAPTER 2: THE ROMANTIC IDEAL .20CHAPTER 3: STUDY 1: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF ROMANTIC IDEALS IN POPULARFILMS .33CHAPTER 4: STUDY 2: A SURVEY INVESTIGATING YOUNG PEOPLE‘S BELIEFSABOUT RELATIONSHIPS .83CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH .125CHAPTER 6: TABLES AND FIGURES .135REFERENCES .184APPENDIX A .215APPENDIX B .216CURRICULUM VITAE .226vii

LIST OF TABLESTable 1 List of Coded Movies with Release Dates in order of Highest Grossing Box OfficeReceipts .135Table 2 Percent Agreement for Unitizing at SET level .138Table 3 Reliability kappas for Source Variables at SET level .139Table 4 Reliability kappas for Target Demographics at SET level .140Table 5 Reliability kappas for SET Type of Expression, and SET Reinforcement, Film RelationalMessage.141Table 6 Frequencies of Demographic Information for Sources .142Table 7 Frequencies of the Demographic Information for Targets.144Table 8 Frequencies of the Prominence of Sources and Targets .146Table 9 Descriptive Statistics of Scale Variables .147Table 10 Principal Components Analysis for the Romantic Beliefs Scale .148Table 11 List of Romantic Comedy Movies with Weighting Scores for Romantic Content .149Table 12 Bivariate Correlations for Romantic Media Exposure Variables .150Table 13 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Endorsementof Romantic Beliefs .151Table 14 Bivariate Correlations for Romantic Belief Subscales .152Table 15 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Endorsementof the Idealization of Other Ideal .153Table 16 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Endorsementof the Love Conquers All Ideal .154Table 17 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Endorsementof the Love at First Sight Ideal .155Table 18 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Endorsementof the Soul mate/One and Only Ideal .156Table 19 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Two-way Interaction betweenRomantic Comedy Exposure and Relational Experience in Predicting Endorsementof Romantic Beliefs .157Table 20 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Two-way Interaction betweenRomantic Comedy Exposure and Relational Status in Predicting Endorsement ofRomantic Beliefs .158Table 21Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Two-way Interaction betweenRomantic Comedy Exposure and Perceived Reality in Predicting Endorsement ofRomantic Beliefs .159Table 22 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Two-way Interaction betweenRomantic Comedy Exposure and Viewing with a Motivation to Learn in PredictingEndorsement of Romantic Beliefs .160Table 23 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Two-way Interaction betweenRomantic Comedy Exposure and Perceived Similarity in Predicting Endorsement ofRomantic Beliefs .161Table 24 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Two-way Interaction betweenRomantic Comedy Exposure and Sex in Predicting Endorsement of Romantic Beliefs .162viii