Fast Love in Hard Times: Societal Stress Shapes Romantic Representations Across Five Decades of US Songs and Movies
Abstract
How do cultural representations of romantic relationships respond to societal adversity, and can they anticipate changes in pair-bonding behavior? Behavioral-ecological theories predict that harsh and unpredictable environments reduce investment in long-term relationships in favor of immediate attraction. To test this hypothesis, we used large language models to quantify slow love (emotional attachment and long-term partner investment) and fast love (passion and immediate attraction) across three corpora spanning five decades of US popular culture: 266,086 Billboard Hot 100 chart appearances (1973-2023), 1,180 highest-grossing US movies within 1977-2018, and 14,505 US movies produced within 1950-2018. We examined long-term historical trajectories, responses to major societal shocks, and associations with psychological distress, political instability, and pair-bonding. Representations of romantic relationships evolved through distinct historical phases rather than continuous linear trends. Across media, romanticism declined during the decades surrounding the sexual revolution, increased throughout the late twentieth century, and subsequently diverged, with song lyrics showing a pronounced decline between 2001 and 2016, before rising again. In movies, romanticism generally increased after 2000. Across datasets, periods of greater psychological distress and political instability consistently showed a relative shift toward immediate attraction and away from long-term emotional investment. The 2008 financial crisis provided suggestive evidence of accelerating this trend in song lyrics, whereas the COVID-19 pandemic produced no comparable effect. Temporal analyses further suggested that greater cultural romanticism preceded lower future political instability and, in movie production, higher future marriage-to-divorce ratios. Conversely, psychological distress preceded a stronger focus on sexual attraction. Together, these findings suggest that modern romantic culture is neither historically linear nor socially autonomous. Instead, it evolves through successive historical phases that systematically covary with broader psychological and societal conditions. Overall, the findings are consistent with behavioral-ecological accounts proposing that societal adversity reduces the psychological romantic tendencies essential to invest in long-term pair bonding.
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BibTeX
@misc{foramitti2026fast,
title = {{Fast Love in Hard Times: Societal Stress Shapes Romantic Representations Across Five Decades of US Songs and Movies}},
author = {Markus Foramitti and Daniel Reiter and Mauricio Martins},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/f9jkc_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/f9jkc_v1/},
note = {CC0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Fast Love in Hard Times: Societal Stress Shapes Romantic Representations Across Five Decades of US Songs and Movies
AU - Markus Foramitti
AU - Daniel Reiter
AU - Mauricio Martins
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/f9jkc_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/f9jkc_v1/
AB - How do cultural representations of romantic relationships respond to societal adversity, and can they anticipate changes in pair-bonding behavior? Behavioral-ecological theories predict that harsh and unpredictable environments reduce investment in long-term relationships in favor of immediate attraction. To test this hypothesis, we used large language models to quantify slow love (emotional attachment and long-term partner investment) and fast love (passion and immediate attraction) across three corpora spanning five decades of US popular culture: 266,086 Billboard Hot 100 chart appearances (1973-2023), 1,180 highest-grossing US movies within 1977-2018, and 14,505 US movies produced within 1950-2018. We examined long-term historical trajectories, responses to major societal shocks, and associations with psychological distress, political instability, and pair-bonding. Representations of romantic relationships evolved through distinct historical phases rather than continuous linear trends. Across media, romanticism declined during the decades surrounding the sexual revolution, increased throughout the late twentieth century, and subsequently diverged, with song lyrics showing a pronounced decline between 2001 and 2016, before rising again. In movies, romanticism generally increased after 2000. Across datasets, periods of greater psychological distress and political instability consistently showed a relative shift toward immediate attraction and away from long-term emotional investment. The 2008 financial crisis provided suggestive evidence of accelerating this trend in song lyrics, whereas the COVID-19 pandemic produced no comparable effect. Temporal analyses further suggested that greater cultural romanticism preceded lower future political instability and, in movie production, higher future marriage-to-divorce ratios. Conversely, psychological distress preceded a stronger focus on sexual attraction. Together, these findings suggest that modern romantic culture is neither historically linear nor socially autonomous. Instead, it evolves through successive historical phases that systematically covary with broader psychological and societal conditions. Overall, the findings are consistent with behavioral-ecological accounts proposing that societal adversity reduces the psychological romantic tendencies essential to invest in long-term pair bonding.
ER -