New research shows how people’s romantic beliefs influence how they process celebrities’ infidelity

New research sheds light on how audiences rely on romantic beliefs to evaluate infidelity committed by their favorite stars. The findings, published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media, provide insight into the nature of the relationship between romantic beliefs and parasocial relationships.

A parasocial relationship is one in which people feel they know someone even though they have never met them in real life. People often form these one-sided relationships with celebrities and other public figures. While many studies have examined the formation of parasocial relationships, researchers have largely neglected how people’s idealized romantic beliefs influence their responses to celebrity transgressions such as infidelity.

“Infidelity is a common transgression by celebrities, but with very mixed reactions from fans. Research is needed to delineate the patterns of these responses and to empirically examine the reasons underlying the responses,” said study author Mu Hu, associate professor of communications at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

For their study, the researchers surveyed a sample of 397 college students from five major public universities in eastern China. Participants first completed a measurement of idealized romantic beliefs, in which they reported the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with statements such as “I think being truly in love means being in love forever,” “I’ll probably fall in love almost immediately, when I meet the right person” and “There will only be one love for me.”

Participants were then asked to name their favorite stars. Most participants (63%) named actors or actresses. In addition, 27% of those named were singers, while 4% named athletes, 2% TV presenters, 2% social media influencers, 2% comedians, 1% scholars, and only one person named a film director. Seventy-nine participants viewed their parasocial relationship with celebrities as romantic, 153 participants viewed their parasocial relationship with celebrities as friendly, and 165 participants categorized their parasocial relationship as ‘other’.

Next, participants shared how they would feel if their favorite celebrity committed infidelity. They indicated how serious they felt the transgression was, their negative emotional response, and their likelihood of forgiving the celebrity.

The researchers found that idealized romantic beliefs were positively related to perceived severity. In other words, those with more idealized romantic beliefs tended to view infidelity as a more serious transgression. Females tend to have stronger parasocial relationships than males. Women’s reactions to celebrity infidelity were also more negative than men’s.

After controlling for the strength of parasocial relationships, the researchers also found a significant interaction effect of gender and audience type. Among men, romance fans were less concerned about their favorite stars’ infidelities than friendship fans. Among women, romance fans were more concerned than friendship fans about their favorite stars’ infidelities

“We should understand that it’s natural for people to form different opinions and have different reactions to a particular celebrity’s infidelity scandal,” Hu told PsyPost. “This study shows that people’s romantic beliefs, how they view the celebrity (eg, as a romantic partner, friend, or otherwise) and gender play a role in how they process and deal with this type of transgression.”

“Each study has limitations while also offering potential directions for future research,” Hu noted. “The biggest caveat of this study, I think, is that it examined people’s expected reactions to their favorite celebrity’s infidelity, but not the actual reactions because we adopted a hypothetical scenario study design (we asked research participants to rate how they would react if their favorite stars were unfaithful). For the future, I believe that a cross-cultural comparison or cross-cultural communication study that incorporates cultural constructs will further our understanding of this topic.”

“This study is based on a sample of Chinese college students,” Hu added. “I would like to see replications of this study with samples from other cultures. Some of the key constructs involved in this study such as B. romantic beliefs, are very susceptible to the influence of cultural contexts.”

The study Whose Bed Have Your Boots Got Down? Expected People’s Responses to Celebrity Romantic Relationship Cheating,” was authored by Mu Hu, Haijiao Xu, Shuchang Liu, and Jing Cai.