New Study Suggests that Men Like Romantic Movies Posted: Feb 01, 2007

According to research by Richard Harris, professor of psychology at Kansas State University, guys like romantic movies too, possibly putting the term “chick flicks” in jeopardy.

"Everyone thinks that women like romantic movies and that they drag guys along to them," says Harris. "What was significant was that the guys also liked the movies, and that the choice to view a romantic movie was usually made together as a couple, not just by the girl."

Using a 7-point scale, Harris asked men and women to rate how much they liked a romantic movie they had just watched. He also asked them to rate how much they believed their date enjoyed the movie and how much they think men and women in general like romantic movies.

"We found that women really do enjoy romantic movies," says Harris. "They rated how much they liked the movie at about 6 on the 7-point scale. However, we also found that men liked the movies as well. They rated how much they liked the movie at about 4.8, which is higher than most people would have guessed."

But stereotypes do still exist in perceptions. According to Harris:

"When we asked both men and women how men in general would like the movie, both said that men would not like the movie, in spite of what they had just said about themselves or their dates. Movie studios should recognize the fact that there is a moderate interest among men and add something to romantic movies that appeals to men. There are a lot of men who go to these romantic movies and enjoy them. I wouldn't write off the male audience just because it is a romantic film. I would suggest marketing to the men in the audience."

Harris' study was a follow-up to earlier research he did involving the viewing of violent films on dates, examining a genre that was considered to be mostly guy films. Harris said that's why he wanted to look at romantic films, which were considered to be mostly women's films. He found that the stereotypes with violent and romantic films are both followed and disregarded when it comes to selecting which movie to see on a date. According to Harris:

"We found that when seeing the film on a date, the decision about which kind of movie to attend is mostly made together as a couple and can go either way, but only if one party makes the decision, then they stay true to those stereotypes, with guys choosing to go to a violent film and women choosing a romantic film.”

A K-State faculty member since 1974, Harris is part of the university's cognitive and human factors psychology program. His research areas include autobiographical memory for media experiences, comprehension and memory for figurative language, lexical processing, and studies of language processing in languages other than English and in bilinguals.