Women Report Being More Likely Than Men to Model Their Relationships after What They have Seen on TV

Students (21 men and 50 women) anonymously answered questions about imitating relationships seen on TV. The women were more likely than men to report trying to model family life after what they saw on TV situational comedies and to expect their significant other to act as those seen on TV. They also more frequently reported experiencing a significant other acting as those on TV. There was no difference by sex in current age, parents' marital status during the students' formative years, or age of separation, divorce, or widowing if any occurred. For neither women nor men did a broken home during the formative years correlate with looking to TV for information on relationships.