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Research has shown that exposure to specific fiction genres is associated with theory of mind and attitudes toward gender roles and sexual behavior (e.g., Fong, Mullin, & Mar, 2013, 2015); however, relatively little research has investigated the relationship between exposure to written fiction and beliefs about relationships, a variable known to relate to relationship quality in the real world (e.g., Eidelson & Epstein, 1982; Lemay & Venaglia, 2016). Here, participants were asked to complete both the Genre Familiarity Test (Black, Capps, & Barnes, 2017), an author recognition test that assesses prior exposure to seven different written fiction genres, and the Relationship Belief Inventory (Eidelson & Epstein, 1982), a measure that assesses the degree to which participants hold five unrealistic and destructive beliefs about the way that romantic relationships should work. After controlling for personality, gender, age, and exposure to other genres, three genres were found to be significantly correlated with different relationship beliefs. Individuals who scored higher on exposure to classics were less likely to believe that disagreement is destructive. Science fiction/fantasy readers were also less likely to support the belief that disagreement is destructive, as well as the belief that partners cannot change, the belief that sexes are different, and the belief that mindreading is expected in relationships. In contrast, prior exposure to the romance genre was positively correlated with the belief that the sexes are different, but not with any other subscale of the Relationships Belief Inventory.

Fiction has been characterized as a form of simulated social experience that allows the reader to practice attributing motives, emotions, and other mental states to characters engaged in social interactions that are embedded in a larger, simulated social world (e.g., Mar & Oatley, 2008; Mar, Oatley, Djikic, & Mullin, 2011; Oatley, 1999). Following this idea, a growing body of research has investigated the relationship between fiction exposure and real-world mentalizing ability (e.g., Fong et al., 2013; Kidd & Castano, 2017