We Don't Choose Whom We Love: Predictors for Romantic Attraction to Villains.

Introduction: Why are women (not) romantically attracted to dark personalities or villains, which might be a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization? In the current study, it is opted to investigate how adult attachment, maladaptive personality traits, and acceptance of couple violence in women predict romantic attraction to heroic/villainous characters using structural equation modeling (SEM). Method: First, a pilot study was conducted in 122 heterosexual women (aged 16-25) to select male TV characters. This resulted in the selection of six villains and 10 heroes for the main study, in which 194 other heterosexual women (aged 16-25) were asked to rate the pictures of TV characters through an online questionnaire. This was combined with self-report measures of maladaptive personality traits, acceptance of couple violence, and adult attachment. These variables were entered into a SEM model to assess model fit. Results: Overall, women rated heroes higher on physical appearance (pilot study) and romantic attraction (main study) compared to villains. We found different direct effects of avoidant (negative) and anxious (positive) attachment styles on romantic attraction to heroes. Moreover, maladaptive personality traits fully mediated the positive effect of avoidant attachment style on romantic attraction to villains. Discussion: Despite the limitations of the study design (e.g., low N, low notoriety of the TV characters), this study emphasizes that women are generally more romantically attracted to heroes (vs. villains). Besides, there are different predictors of romantic attraction to heroes and villains, which requires further investigation, especially in the context of IPV.

Optimism, mindfulness, and resilience as potential protective factors for the mental health consequences of fear of the coronavirus.

The COVID-19 pandemic has a substantial impact on mental health. Prior reports have shown that depression, anxiety, and stress have increased throughout the pandemic. Nonetheless, not everyone is affected by these negative consequences and some people may be relatively unaffected. In this online study in a predominantly Dutch and Belgian sample (N = 546), we investigated whether positive personality traits such as optimism, mindfulness, and resilience may protect against the negative mental health consequences (i.e., fear of the coronavirus, depression, stress, and anxiety) of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that fear of COVID-19 was related to higher depression, stress, and anxiety. However, for participants scoring high on mindfulness, optimism, and resilience, this relationship was weakened. In addition to these findings, we present the results of network analyses to explore the network structure between these constructs. These results help to identify possible ways through which psychological well-being can be promoted during the COVID-19 pandemic.