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

“Infidelity is a prevalent celebrity transgression yet with very mixed fans’ reactions. Research is needed to outline the patterns of these reactions and empirically examine the rationales underlying the reactions,” said study author Mu Hu, an associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

For their study, the researchers surveyed a sample of 397 college students from five large public universities in eastern China. The participants first completed a measure of idealized romantic beliefs, where they reported the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with statements such as “I believe that to be truly in love is to be in love forever,” “I am likely to fall in love almost immediately if I meet the right person,” and “There will be only one love for me.”

The participants were then asked to name their favorite celebrities. Most participants (63%) named actors or actresses. In addition, 27% named were singers, while 4% named sports figures, 2% named television hosts, 2% named social media influencers, 2% named comedians, 1% named scholars, and just one person named a movie director. Seventy-nine participants viewed their parasocial relationship with celebrity to be romantic in nature, 153 participants viewed their parasocial relationship with the celebrity to be friendly in nature, and 165 participants categorized their parasocial relationship as “other.”

Next, the participants reported how they would feel if their favorite celebrity committed infidelity. They indicated how severe they would consider the transgression and estimated their negative emotional reaction and 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 severe transgression. Women tended to have stronger parasocial relationships compared to men. Women’s responses to celebrities’ infidelity were also more negative than men’s.

After controlling for the strength of parasocial relationships, the researchers als found were a significant interaction effect of gender and audience type. Among men, romance fans were less troubled than friendship fans by their favorite celebrities’ infidelity. Among women, romance fans were more troubled than friendship fans by their favorite celebrities’ infidelity

“We should understand that it is natural that people form different opinions about and have different reactions toward a certain celebrity’s infidelity scandal,” Hu told PsyPost. “This study shows that people’s romantic beliefs, how they view the celebrity (e.g., as a romantic partner, a friend, or others), and gender all play a role in how they process this type of transgression and cope with it.”

“Any study has limitations but meanwhile provides potential directions in future research,” Hu noted. “The biggest caveat of this study, in my view, is that it examined people’s expected reactions to their favorite celebrities’ infidelity but not the actual reactions since we adopted a hypothetical scenario study design (we asked the research participants to evaluate how they would respond if their favorite celebrities committed infidelity). For future directions, I believe that a cross-cultural comparison or an intercultural communication study which incorporates cultural constructs will further our understanding of this subject.”

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

The study, “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? People’s Expected Responses Toward Celebrities’ Romantic Relationship Infidelity“, was authored by Mu Hu, Haijiao Xu, Shuchang Liu, and Jing Cai.