Green on the Screen: Types of Jealousy and Communicative Responses to Jealousy in Romantic Comedies.

Romantic jealousy is common within romantic relationships, yet there is a lack of research on media portrayals of romantic jealousy and subsequent communicative responses to jealousy. Motivated by script theory and social cognitive theory, this study is a content analysis of types of romantic jealousy and communicative responses to jealousy in the 51 top-grossing romantic comedies released between 2002 and 2014. Results indicate that reactive jealousy was the most frequently depicted type of romantic jealousy in these movies, and destructive communication was the most common response. Furthermore, the type of romantic jealousy was significantly related to the type of communicative response the character employed, and females were more likely to use rival-focused communicative responses than males. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]