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      The attraction of evil. An investigation of factors explaining women’s romantic parasocial relationships with bad guys in movies and series

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          Abstract

          The attractiveness of bad boys can be seen as a cultural phenomenon that can be found in different areas of society and art. In the media, too, the bad boy fulfills social expectations in terms of masculinity and is often portrayed as dominant, violent, hard, unemotional and aggressive. Women may feel attracted to this male dominance under certain conditions. In order to investigate this phenomenon in the field of media psychology, this study examined women’s personality as predictor of romantic parasocial relationships (RPSR) with bad boys from movies or series, as well as feelings and experiences associated with such relationships. In an online questionnaire, 47 women were asked about specific personality traits, their RPSR with their favorite bad boy, and their perceived egocentric feelings and experiences associated with this RPSR. Both the love style ludus, which describes unattached playful love, and sensation seeking, which encompasses a woman’s inclination towards new experiences and adventures, emerge as predictors of an RPSR to a bad boy. Furthermore, it was found that a woman’s RPSR to a bad boy goes along with her retrospective imaginative involvement and sense of power. The findings show parallels to findings from social psychology that explain the attractiveness of bad boys in real relationships. Due to its correlative design, the study should be seen as a first step in the exploration of this media-psychological phenomenon, which will hopefully be followed by further studies with a stricter causality logic.

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          Most cited references45

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          Introducing the short Dark Triad (SD3): a brief measure of dark personality traits.

          Three socially aversive traits-Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy-have been studied as an overlapping constellation known as the Dark Triad. Here, we develop and validate the Short Dark Triad (SD3), a brief proxy measure. Four studies (total N = 1,063) examined the structure, reliability, and validity of the subscales in both community and student samples. In Studies 1 and 2, structural analyses yielded three factors with the final 27 items loading appropriately on their respective factors. Study 3 confirmed that the resulting SD3 subscales map well onto the longer standard measures. Study 4 validated the SD3 subscales against informant ratings. Together, these studies indicate that the SD3 provides efficient, reliable, and valid measures of the Dark Triad of personalities.
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            The personal sense of power.

            Scholars who examine the psychological effects of power have often argued that possessing power shapes individual behavior because it instills an elevated sense of power. However, little is known about the personal sense of power because very few studies have examined it empirically. In studies involving a total of 1,141 participants and nine different samples, we found that the personal sense of power was coherent within social contexts; for example, individuals who believed that they can get their way in a group also believed that they can influence fellow group members' attitudes and opinions. The personal sense of power was also moderately consistent across relationships but showed considerable relationship specificity; for example, individuals' personal sense of power vis-à-vis their friend tended to be distinct but moderately related to their personal sense of power vis-à-vis their parent. And the personal sense of power was affected not only by sociostructural factors (e.g., social position, status) but also by personality variables such as dominance.
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              Does self-love lead to love for others? A story of narcissistic game playing.

              Five studies investigated the links among narcissism, self-esteem, and love. Across all studies, narcissism was associated primarily with a game-playing love style. This link was found in reports of general love styles (Study 1a) and of love in ongoing romantic relationships (Studies 1b-3, 5). Narcissists' game-playing love style was the result of a need for power and autonomy (Study 2) and was linked with greater relationship alternatives and lesser commitment (Study 3). Finally, narcissists' self-reports of game playing were confirmed by their partners in past and current relationships (Studies 4, 5). In contrast, self-esteem was negatively linked to manic love and positively linked to passionate love across studies. Implications for the understanding of narcissism in relationships are discussed.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                URI : https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/2529251/overviewRole: Role: Role: Role: Role:
                URI : https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/2923133/overviewRole: Role: Role: Role: Role:
                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychol.
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-1078
                24 December 2024
                2024
                : 15
                : 1501809
                Affiliations
                Department of Media and Business Communication, Institute Human-Computer-Media, University of Würzburg , Würzburg, Germany
                Author notes

                Edited by: Daniel Pietschmann, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany

                Reviewed by: Valerie Yu, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

                Georg Valtin, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany

                *Correspondence: Holger Schramm, holger.schramm@ 123456uni-wuerzburg.de
                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1501809
                11703912
                39776969
                eeccb145-48cb-4fc9-8bc1-b0459e7e8a59
                Copyright © 2024 Schramm and Sartorius.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 25 September 2024
                : 09 December 2024
                Page count
                Figures: 1, Tables: 0, Equations: 0, References: 45, Pages: 6, Words: 5073
                Funding
                The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
                Categories
                Psychology
                Brief Research Report
                Custom metadata
                Media Psychology

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                romantic parasocial relationship,bad boys,women,retrospective imaginary involvement,masculinity

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