| Sunday, February 04, 2007 |
| Men too like mushy movies, new research reveals |
Those who thought pulpy romance flicks and tearjerkers are only for women, better be ready to change their notion - a new research has revealed that men too like romantic movies besides their usual potboilers and action stuff.
According to research by Richard Harris, professor of psychology at Kansas State University, the United States, males enjoy watching romantic movies, too.
Harris says the results of his survey are surprising and go against common stereotypes.
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.
Though, in the study, both men and women generalised that men as a group wouldn't like a romantic movie, when men rated the romantic flick they had just seen, they gave it a 4.8 on Harris' scale. When women were asked to rate how much their dates liked the movie, they gave the same 4.8 rating.
"We found that women really do enjoy romantic movies," Harris said. "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."
One of the most interesting parts of the study, Harris said, was that men and women both still used stereotypes when referring to each gender in general. Though men and women thought the specific man watching the movie enjoyed it, both still fell back on stereotypes when they were asked about whether or not men as a group would like the movie.
The results of the study could be something moviemakers may take into consideration when making a romantic movie, Harris said.
The study also showed that men and women used stereotypes when it came to guessing which scene their date would choose to play in the film. The most commonly selected scene was the romantic scene, which, according to Harris, was not unexpected because romance was the one thing that all the movies had in common.
However, most women selected a romantic scene for themselves and their date, but they guessed that their date would pick a sex scene. While many men did select a sex scene, the number was not nearly as high as what the women had predicted it would be. According to Harris, these results are because both men and women were using stereotypes to guess what their date would choose.
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. 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.Labels: movies |
| posted by a correspondent @ 6:52 AM |
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