Psychological Development and Education ›› 2016, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (5): 539-546.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2016.05.04

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The Impact of Romantic Media Exposure on Undergraduate Students' Romantic Beliefs: The Effect of Perceived Realism and Social Comparison Orientation

NIU Gengfeng1,2, WU Li3, XU Lei1,2,4, ZHOU Zongkui1,2, LIAN Shuailei1,2   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Adolescent cyberpsychology and behavior(CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430079;
    2. School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079;
    3. School of Foreign Languages, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079;
    4. School of Education, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056
  • Online:2016-09-15 Published:2016-09-15

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Abstract: In order to investigate the impact of romantic media exposure on romantic beliefs as well as the effects of perceived realism and social comparison orientation, a sample of 614 undergraduate students without romantic experience completed Questionnaire of Romantic Media Exposure, Perceived Realism Scale, Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure and Romantic Beliefs Scale. Results revealed that: (1) Romantic media exposure was positively correlated with perceived realism and romantic beliefs, and perceived realism was also positively correlated with romantic beliefs; (2) Romantic media exposure could affect romanticc beliefs through the mediation of perceived realism; (3) Both the direct effect of romantic media exposure on romantic beliefs and the mediating effect of perceived realism were moderated by social comparison orientation, and both these two effects were much stronger among undergraduate students with high social comparison orientation.

Key words: media, romantic beliefs, perceived realism, social comparison orientation, undergraduate students

CLC Number: 

  • B844

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