The Bridget Jones effect: The relationship between exposure to romantic media contents and fear of being single among emerging adults.


Based on cultivation theory, this study examines whether an individual’s exposure to romantic media contents would be significantly related to their fear of being single. Analyses on a cross-sectional sample of 18- to 25-year olds (N = 821) did not show a significant overall relationship between exposure to romantic media contents and fear of being single, but moderation results indicated that this relationship did exist for women who were single themselves. Suggesting that romantic media contents might contribute to the fear of being single only for specific members of this genre’s audience, these findings could have general implications for theorizing on cultivation-type media effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)