Romantic Relationships 309Despite the fact that we view women as
more relationship oriented than men, research
suggests that men are more likely than women
to have romantic notions about love. Men
score higher than women on the romantic be-
liefs shown in Table 9.3: (a) love finds a way
or conquers all; (b) there is only one true love
for a person; (c) one’s partner is perfect; and
(d) one can fall in love at first sight (Hendrick
& Hendrick, 2002). Men fall in love more
quickly compared to women. Women are
more likely to have a practical view of relation-
ships, believing that it is possible to love more
than one person and that economic security is
more important than passion to a relationship
(Frazier & Esterly, 1990). Thus men may
still hold more romantic ideals than women.
Although women have achieved greaterDO GENDER 9.2
Who Is More
Romantic in Love?Ask 10 women and 10 men the following
question: “If a man (woman) had all the
other qualities you desired, would you
marry this person if you were not in love
with him (her)?”
Either have a scale of response options
(yes, no, unsure) or create a 5-point scale
ranging from 1, definitely no, to 5, definitely
yes. What other variables besides sex might
be associated with responses? Does age mat-
ter? Does ethnicity matter? What about par-
ents’ marital status? Gender roles?FIGURE 9.2 Students in the United States, Japan, and Russia were asked the “Kephart question”
(whether they would marry someone who had all the qualities they desired in a mate but they were not
in love with the person). Men and women in the United States and Japan were equally likely to say they
would not marry the person, that love was the basis for marriage. Only in Russia were women less likely
than men to view love as necessary for marriage.
Source: Adapted from Sprecher, Aron, et al. (1994).Love Necessary for Marriage (%)Male Female Male Female Male Female0102030405060708090100United States Japan RussiaM09_HELG0185_04_SE_C09.indd 309 6/21/11 12:40 PM