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Blind Love, Risky Romance: Exposure to Romantic Cues Increases Nonmoral and Immoral Risk Taking

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Blind Love, Risky Romance: Exposure to Romantic Cues Increases Nonmoral and Immoral Risk Taking

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2025; 0:1–12 https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.13096 1 of 12 Scandinavian Journal of Psychology EMPIRICAL ARTICLE Blind Love, Risky Romance: Exposure to Romantic Cues  Increases Nonmoral and Immoral Risk Taking 

Heng Li Center for Linguistic, Literary & Cultural Studies, Sichuan International Studies University, Chongqing, China Correspondence: Heng Li Received: 24 April 2024 | Revised: 28 November 2024 | Accepted: 10 February 2025 Funding: The author received no specific funding for this work. Keywords: behavioral evidence | perception of personal control | priming | risk taking | romance ABSTRACT Love and risk are often intricately intertwined within linguistic and cultural conventions. This study experimentally tested the  hypothesis that risk-taking attitudes and behaviors are systematically influenced by romantic primes. To evaluate our theoretical  framework, we conducted four complementary experiments utilizing various priming techniques (lexical cues, advertisements,  and storytelling), diverse participant populations (students and general adults), and multiple measures of risk-taking behavior  (self-report and behavioral data). Study 1 compared students' tendencies to engage in risk taking when exposed to romantic cues  versus neutral primes. Studies 2 and 3 aimed to provide behavioral confirmation of the observed effects in nonmoral and immoral risk-taking behaviors among nonstudent participants. Study 4 sought to provide more direct evidence regarding the role  of self-control in explaining the effects of romantic cues on risk taking. We found both correlational and experimental evidence  indicating that participants primed with romantic cues exhibited a higher likelihood of engaging in nonmoral and immoral risktaking behaviors compared to those exposed to neutral conditions. Across the studies, self-control was identified as a mediating  factor in the observed effects. In sum, our research demonstrates that the mere presence of romantic themes significantly influences the propensity to engage in risky behaviors. 1 | Introduction Love and risk are often intimately intertwined with each other  in artistic depictions of human existence. In the West, Romeo  and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, follows a tragic story that  two young lovers risked all even taking their lives for each other  when hate and love collided. In the East, The Butterfly Lovers, a  classic Chinese legend, revolves around the tragic romance that  two young lovers were willing to risk their own safety for the  sake of being in love. Although the risky paradox of love runs  so deep in our daily language and cultural traditions, and forms  the core of humanity, limited research has experimentally examined its cognitive and psychological consequences in naturally occurring behavior. In the current inquiry, we propose that priming romantic representations should be considered as a novel antecedent of  risk-taking behaviors in both nonmoral and immoral domains,  because romantic cues have been found to decrease perceptions  of personal control (Luo et al. 2023). In the psychology literature,  nonmoral risky behaviors are those activities that do not carry  any moral connotations (Kupor et al. 2015; Li 2023). A paradigmatic example of them is extreme sports that have a high dosage  of inherent risk. These adventurous activities do not necessarily  lead to injuries and fatalities to oneself, as well as unintentional  tort to other people (Brymer 2010). By contrast, immoral risk taking refers to activities that lack ethical standards and pit moral values (Saini and Martin 2009). The  © 2025 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.2 of 12 Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2025 adoption of these behaviors can cause interference with individual conscience and break rules that are enforced by social institutions, such as family, community, and government agencies  (Yates 1992). For example, bribery increases wealth inequality  and supports corrupt regimes. In most countries throughout the  world, the penalties for bribery of a public official include a steep  fine of up to several times the value of the bribe and imprisonment for years in a penitentiary. In the past few decades, much evidence suggests that risk attitudes  and behaviors can be rapidly shaped by the contextual stimuli  (Fujimoto and Takahashi 2016; Li 2023; Stenstrom et al. 2018). For  example, researchers found that presenting a neutral-content text  at a faster pace, wearing a bicycle helmet, administering a minimal  physical contact (i.e., interpersonal touch), and reminders of Godrelated concepts led to unconscious activation of safety-related  concepts, which in turn increased risk taking across diverse domains (Chandler and Pronin  2012; Gamble and Walker  2016;  Kupor et al. 2015; Levav and Argo 2010). Such findings suggest  that human beings can adjust their risk-taking behavior as a function of novel situations and environmental cues. In the current research, we examined a novel hypothesis that exposure to romantic information can foster an increase in risk-taking  behavior within the framework of Parental Investment Theory  (PIT). This theory posits that the extent of parental investment in  raising offspring can significantly influence mating strategies and  risk-taking behaviors (Andersson 1994; Trivers 1972). We theorize  that when primed with romantic cues, individuals may become  more focused on short-term mating strategies, which can lead to  increased risk-taking. This behavior may manifest as a pursuit of  opportunities designed to enhance attractiveness or social status,  as individuals perceive these actions as potentially beneficial for  attracting a mate (Brooks 2000; Chen et al. 2024). On one hand, the competitive behaviors exhibited by males to attract females often involve considerable risk taking, such as engaging in aggressive displays or elaborate courtship rituals that can  expose them to predators (Prokop and Pazda 2020). This type of  risk taking serves as a strategy to demonstrate fitness; males willing to undertake such risks signal their health and vitality, thereby  becoming more attractive to females despite the inherent dangers  (Byrnes et al. 1999; Ronay et al. 2003). For example, Ronay and  von Hippel (2010) conducted a field experiment with skateboarders that demonstrated that physical risk taking among young men  increased in the presence of an attractive female. On the other hand, females, who generally invest more heavily  in offspring through gestation and nurturing, may adopt more  cautious strategies. However, certain environmental cues can  temporarily shift their behavior, prompting them to engage in  risk taking to attract a high-quality mate or to respond to the  perceived rewards of securing a desirable partner (Birnbaum  et al. 2025). For instance, Birnbaum et al. (2020) found that individuals are more inclined to lie—a typical risk-related behavior—to a potential partner following sexual priming. Similarly, we propose that romantic priming can create a context  in which individuals perceive heightened competition for mates.  Just as sexual priming can induce increased arousal and a desire to  pursue mating opportunities, exposure to romantic cues—such as  emotional intimacy or physical attraction—may elicit analogous  emotional states. These states can lead to a temporary reduction in  self-control, thereby increasing risk-taking behaviors. One important line of research on factors influencing people's  decisions to engage in risk-taking behavior has focused on the  role of self-control (Strickland et  al.  1966). Self-control is the  ability to manage one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the  face of temptations and impulses (Baumeister and Exline 1999;  Baumeister et  al.  2007). Multiple evidence strands suggest  that individuals' self-control capacity contributes to risk taking (Arneklev et al. 1993; Friehe and Schildberg-Hörisch 2017;  Sekścińska et  al.  2021). For example, Zuckerman and  Kuhlman (2000) found that there was a significant relationship  between poor self-regulation and risk taking in diverse areas:  smoking, drinking, drugs, sex, driving, and gambling. Moving beyond correlational evidence, Caspi et al. (1997) conducted a longitudinal study of a birth cohort and found that  children with poor self-control (e.g., impulsive temperaments)  displayed more risky behavior 18years after the assessment of  their personality traits relative to the less impulsive children. On  the basis of these findings, Freeman and Muraven (2010) further  examined the causal effects of state fluctuations in self-control  on subsequent risk taking. The results showed that participants who depleted their self-control strength took more risks  than those who were not depleted of their self-control strength  initially. Overall, these findings converge to suggest that selfcontrol, as measured both at the trait and state levels, can have  an important effect on risk attitudes and risky behavior. In addition to evidence suggesting that situational fluctuations  in self-control strength influence risk-taking behavior, there  is also research examining the relationship between romantic  contexts and perceptions of self-control failures. There exists  a body of linguistic, psychological, and physiological research  that explores individuals' deeply entrenched belief that “love  is uncontrollable.” First, people tend to associate love and uncontrollability across many languages and cultures (Plato 2008;  Stendhal  2020). For example, the metaphorical expressions  “lovesick” in English and “恋爱脑”(lit. “love brain,” mindset  that is fixated on romance) in Chinese refer to an emotional  state where one cannot control themselves to act normally.  Previous research has shown that linguistic and cultural conventions play a critical role in establishing implicit associations  in people's mental models (Boroditsky 2001; Li and Cao 2019).  For instance, based on the sensory metaphors for romantic relationships (e.g., love is sweet), Yang et al. (2019) found that priming with romantic cues could significantly increase consumers'  Summary • We provide the first causal evidence that exposure to  romantic cues increases risk taking. • Self-control mediates the effect of romantic representations on risk taking behaviors. • This study includes both self-report and behavioral  measures of risk taking.3 of 12 subsequent consumption of sweets. Analogous to the psychological correspondence between romance and sweetness, the lay  belief that love is uncontrollable may also lead to the perception of the impossibility of personal control and thus results in  greater risk taking. Second, evidence from behavioral studies also suggests that  there is a strong conceptual connection between romance and  inability to exercise personal control. For example, using an implicit association test, Luo et al. (2023) found that participants  showed faster response latencies when sorting stimulus items  into categories that hold a stronger mental connection (e.g., “romantic” and “uncontrollable”) than those that hold a weaker  connection (e.g., “romantic” and “controllable”). The researchers also found that the lay belief in the association between romantic representations and the perception of a lack of personal  control could lead to more impulsive buying in tourism. Such  findings suggest that romantic primes can elicit the pattern of  self-control failure, which subsequently triggers corresponding  changes in behavior. Third, there is underlying physiological or biological basis of the  lay belief that love is uncontrollable. According to the central  tenets of embodied cognition theories, conceptual processing is  grounded in, and can be influenced by, actual physical bodily  states (Barsalou 2010). For example, Williams and Bargh (2008)  found that experiencing physical warmth, such as holding a cup  of warming coffee, increased interpersonal warmth, which suggests a deep link between physiological experiences and social  experiences. Analogous to how physical temperature influences  social relationships, when people in a romantic relationship,  it is very common for them to have a series of uncontrollable  physiological symptoms, such as butterflies in stomach, a racing heartbeat, flushed cheeks, and sweaty palms (Fisher 1998).  These subtle clues and labile psychophysiological responses may  potentially contribute to creating and strengthening the lay belief between romance and the perception of uncontrollability.  Taking these strands of evidence together, we can obtain reliable support for the mental association between romance and  the perception of uncontrollability. Garnering insights from research on the conceptual correspondence between love and uncontrollability and on the association  between self-control capacity and risk taking, we predict that  people who are exposed to romantic cues will have the perception of self-control failure, leading to a higher propensity for risk  taking. To provide an empirical test of our theoretical propositions, we conducted four complementary experiments with diverse priming techniques (lexical decision task, advertisements,  romance-themed attractions), multiple measures of risk-taking  propensity (self-report and objective behavioral data), and different research samples (student and general adult populations). In Study 1, we adopted a randomized experimental design in  which participants were first primed with romantic representations or neutral words and then responded to a questionnaire  that was used to assess their risk-taking attitudes in different  areas. Extending beyond multi-item self-report scales and diversifying our participant base, Study 2 sought to examine the effect  of priming romantic relationships on how individuals take risks  in a nonmoral domain. Experiment 3 tested whether exposure  to romantic cues could also increase immoral risk taking in a  behavioral context. Experiment 4 provides more direct evidence  for this proposed hypothesis. Specifically, we tested the assertion that the focal effect would manifest at regular levels of selfcontrol but would be diminished when self-control is enhanced.  Across four studies, we examined whether state of self-control  played a mediating role in accounting for the relationship between romantic representations and risk-taking behaviors. 2 | Study 1 The primary objective of this study was to test our focal prediction that exposure to romantic cues could influence people's  propensity to take risks. We expect participants priming with  romantic representations to have a higher likelihood of engaging in risk-taking activities in comparison with the participants  in the control group. 2.1 | Method 2.1.1 | Participants We conducted formal power calculation to determine the minimum sample size. If the study was designed to reach the desired  statistical power level (80%) for an independent t test, p<0.05,  Cohen d=0.50 (the medium effect size), the estimated sample  size would be 128 participants as G*Power analysis indicated.  Bearing this number in mind, we over-recruited participants as  long as the registration time window and research funding permitted in order to compensate for potential no-shows. A total of  182 undergraduate students (54.9% females) were recruited from  a variety of majors at a large Chinese university. They received  a cash incentive for their participation. The age of participants  ranged from 17 to 22 years (M=19.7, SD=0.8). All of the participants belonged to Han ethnicity. The experimenter randomly  assigned participants to either the romantic condition (N=94)  or the neutral condition (N=88). The distribution of men and  women across priming condition was almost equal, p=0.28. 2.1.2 | Materials and Procedure Upon arrival at the laboratory, participants were seated in  front of a computer. After providing informed consent, participants were informed that they were going to take part in a  lexical decision task, which was purported to assess their verbal ability and decision-making. The procedure for the lexical  decision task that contained both romantic cues and neutral  words was closely modeled after Sanchez et  al.  (2006) and  Sanchez and Broccoli (2008). In this task administered by Eprime software, participants were asked to discriminate nonwords from real words using different keys on the keyboard.  Instructions encouraged the participants to respond as quickly  as they could without sacrificing accuracy. The program automatically recorded accuracy for the classification of nonwords  and words during the computer task as manipulation check.  We also asked respondents to recall words from the priming  task to ensure that they were sustaining attention during the  experimental session.4 of 12 Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2025 During the priming task, participants in the experimental condition were exposed to romantic stimuli among other neutral  words. There were eight words that have strong association with  romantic relationships, such as “婚礼(wedding)”, “结婚(marriage)”, “约会(date)”, and “浪漫(romance)”. Participants in the  neutral condition experienced eight words without romantic  connotations, such as “目标(objective)”, “窗户(window)”, “班 级(class)”, and “想法 (thought)”. A separate group of undergraduate students (N=60) who did not take part in the main study  rated the strength of association of 16 words with romantic relationships on a 7-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (Not  at all associated with romantic relationships) to 7 (Extremely associated with romantic relationships). The results showed that  the mean ratings of the associations were 2.09 for neutral target  words and 6.2 for romantic target words. Participants in both  conditions were exposed to eight neutral words: 鞋子(shoes) and  16 nonwords: 邮子. Following a familarization period (five practice trials), participants completed 40 word–nonword discrimination trails using E-prime software. After completing the priming task, participants were asked to  respond to a scale that was used to gauge their perceptions of  personal control (Rotter 1966, 11–12). This scale consisted of a  29-item, forced-choice test, which included 23 items reflecting  perceptions of controllability for events in daily life and six fillers used for disguising the true purpose of the questionnaire.  The dichotomous form required participants to select one statement of each pair that they more strongly believed to be the case  according to their actual situations (e.g., “I have often found that  what is going to happen will happen” and “Trusting to fate has  never turned out as well for me as making a decision to take  a definite course of action”). Summary scores were estimated  with the 23 items that participants chose as indicating their perception of personal control. A higher total scale score suggested  a weaker sense of personal control. Subsequently, participants completed a 30-item version of the  Domain-Specific Risk-Taking (DOSPERT, Weber et  al.  2002).  It was used to assess risk-taking behaviors in five different domains (e.g., ethical, financial, recreational, social, and health/ safety domains). Participants rated each of domain-specific  risky activities for the likelihood with which they would engage in 1=very unlikely to 7=very likely. Two sample items of  the scale read, “Disagreeing with an authority figure on a major  issue” (Social) and “Revealing a friend's secret to someone else”  (Ethical). After completing the questionnaires, a debriefing procedure  was employed to probe participants' suspicions about the key  hypothesis of the study. We did this to ensure that participants  were unable to guess the link between the priming task and the  risk-taking questionnaire. Finally, participants were informed  about the true purpose of the study, thanked, and given financial reward for their participation. 2.2 | Results and Discussion Debriefing responses showed no evidence that participants  could correctly articulate the link between the computer task  and the subsequent questionnaire. Some examples of participants' beliefs about what the experiment was about included  “decision making and risk taking” and “multitasking ability  (recalling words and thinking about personal things simultaneously).” All the participants were able to recall at least one word  from the priming task in the debriefing phase. On average, the  successful rate of all participants for word and nonword classification task was 95%, which suggested that they were paying  sufficient attention to the prime words. We first computed a composite variable indexing the overall degree of risk propensity for each participant by averaging their  ratings of adopting those behaviors in the five risk domains.  Consistent with our focal prediction, participants in the experimental condition showed a higher propensity to engage in  risky activities (M=2.99, SD=0.62) than those in the control  condition (M=2.63, SD=0.51), t(180)=4.26, p<0.001, Cohen's  d=0.63, 95% confidence interval (95% CI)=[0.1933, 0.5267].  Next, we implemented statistical analysis for separate risk behaviors in each domain covered by the DOSPERT. It was found  that there were significant differences in propensity to engage in  risk-taking activities across the five domains (Table 1). As for the perceptions of personal control, all 23 items of the  scale were averaged together to create composite scores. As  predicted, participants who were primed with romantic cues  showed more uncontrollable perceptions of personal control  (M=12.89, SD=5.18) than those in the neutral prime condition  (M=10.99, SD=4.43), t(180)=2.65, p=0.009, Cohen's d=0.40,  95% CI=[0.4857, 3.3143]. We used PROCESS (Model 4) based on  a 5000 bootstrap resampling (Hayes 2017) to test the proposed  mediating role of self-control in the effect of romantic primes on  heightened risk taking. In line with our prediction, perception  TABLE 1 | Summary of results of Study 1 (N=182). Variable Romantic-priming  condition Control condition Comparison M (SD) M (SD) t (1, 180) p Cohen's d 95% CI Recreational 3.12 (1.22) 2.70 (1.06) 2.47 0.014 0.37 [0.0925, 0.7075] Health/safety 2.60 (1.04) 2.30 (0.74) 2.23 0.027 0.33 [0.0344, 0.5658] Ethical 2.10 (1.03) 1.79 (0.59) 2.47 0.014 0.37 [0.0557, 0.5243] Financial 2.67 (0.91) 2.31 (0.82) 2.80 0.006 0.42 [0.1060, 0.6140] Social 4.47 (1.06) 4.05 (0.99) 2.76 0.006 0.41 [0.1195, 0.7205]5 of 12 of personal control played a mediating role in the observed relationship, 95% CI=[0.0266, 0.2194]. Despite Study 1 representing an initial step toward understanding the effect of exposure to romantic representation on selfreport items related to risk taking, several limitations of the  study should be noted. First, our sample was only composed of  college students. There might be important differences between  student and nonstudent participants in terms of risk-taking attitudes and behaviors (Collado et al. 2014; Hanoch et al. 2018;  Mamerow et al. 2016). To reduce the heavy reliance on a narrow  database, Study 2 employed a more representative of the general population. Second, although previous research provided  evidence for the substantial degrees of reliability for the selfreport measures of risk taking, critics may argue that such selfreports cannot realistically mirror actual risk-taking behaviors  in natural settings (Abbott-Chapman et al. 2008; Campbell and  Reiman 2022). To address this issue, Study 2 examined whether  priming romantic relationships could influence people's actual  risk-taking behavior in a nonmoral domain. 3 | Study 2 One purpose of Study 2 was to replicate the effects we observed  in Study 1. This internal replication can determine whether the  basic findings can be applied to other populations and situations. We expected that priming the concepts of romantic relationships would decrease the ability to exert self-control, which  in turn increased people's intention to participate in extreme  sports. 3.1 | Method 3.1.1 | Participants We used a medium effect size (w=0.3) in a Chi-square test for  sample size calculations. G*Power analysis suggested that 143  participants were required to attain a statistical power of 80%.  A total of 151 nonstudent adults from central China took part  in the experiment. They received a cash incentive for their participation. They were recruited via printing fliers, referrals, and  social media. There were 81 women and 70 men. The age of participants ranged from 18 to 54 years (M=37.4, SD=7.1). All of  the participants belonged to Han ethnicity. The experimenter  randomly assigned participants to either the romantic condition (N=78) or the neutral condition (N=73). The distribution  of men and women across priming condition was almost equal,  p=0.30. 3.1.2 | Materials and Procedure Study 1 triggered romance using word primes. Although this  priming technique has been widely used in previously published  studies, there is also evidence for the difficulty to replicate several key social priming findings related to text-based primes  (Marques et al. 2018). To dispel this concern, Study 2 presented  a less obtrusive priming paradigm where participants did not  need to identify the lexical cues. Upon arrival at the laboratory, participants were seated in front  of a computer. After providing informed consent, participants  were told that the purpose of the experiment was to assess the  quality of some advertisements. The romantic condition advertisements presented a romantic photography in movie posters  wherein a woman was kissed on the shoulder by a man, a dozen  of red roses were lying down on the floor, and a Valentine's Day  heart-shaped pink cake was placed on the table. The control  condition featured advertisements for innovative cell phone and  for video games. These images were modeled after the priming  pictures in Dillman Carpentier (2017) to activate the intended  concepts. After completing the priming task, participants completed the  same measure of perceptions of personal control as Study 1. At  the end of the study, the research assistant said: Many thanks again for your contributions to our  research. Here is 10 Chinese yuan for the time and  effort you have provided in participating in the  study. By the way, I'm very pleased to let you know  that the government provided our university with  complimentary admission to some most popular  attractions in a local park. To show our appreciation  for your participation, we are happy to offer you one  ticket as a thank-you gift. One is for an exhibition of  horticulture and gardening that features cutting-edge  garden design layout and floral arrangements. The  other is for a bungee jumping that involves leaping  head-first from a great height with a thick rubber cord  attached to the participant's feet. The prices for the  two tickets are the same. Which one would you like? When the research assistant was communicating with participants, the former reached her hands in the bag and presented  the two tickets to the latter to bolster the cover story. After indicating their choices, participants were offered an opportunity to  make their best guess at the actual purpose of the study. Finally, the key hypothesis of the study was fully explained to  participants. They understood that there were no free tickets  and the deceptive method was necessary in the experimental research. It is worth to point out that although the experimenter presented the cover story in a convincing manner such  as showing the tickets, some participants may not have believed  the cover story. We had no way to test this possibility because  we did not ask follow-up questions to provide more insights into  the believability of the cover story. However, our research design presented a natural setting to make participants feel that  there was a real ticket because nonmonetary reward is a common form of compensation for participation in psychological  research (Li 2023). 3.2 | Results and Discussion No participants could correctly articulate the link between exposure to romantic advertisements and risk taking. In the control condition, 39 participants or 53.42% of these 73 participants 6 of 12 Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2025 chose the bungee jumping gift ticket, a rate that approached the  theoretical chance level (50%), χ2 (1, N=73)=0.5, p=0.48. In the  experiment condition, 58 or 74.36% of these 78 participants chose  the bungee jumping gift ticket, a rate that occurred above the  chance level, χ2 (1, N=78)=18.51, p<0.001, Cramer's V=0.49,  95% CI=[0.2820, 0.6497]. Critically, a 2×2 Chi-Square test  demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the ticket  options between the two groups of people, χ2 (1, N=151)=6.18,  p=0.01, Cramer's V=0.20, 95% CI=[0.0433, 0.3512]. These  findings suggest that with respect to those in the neutral prime  condition, participants who were primed with romantic representations showed a stronger intention to engage in risky activities in the nonmoral domain, namely, bungee jumping. Thus,  Study 2 produced consistent convergent evidence that activating  the concept of romance could boost people's willingness to adopt  nonmoral risk-taking behavior. As predicted, participants who were primed with romantic advertisements showed more uncontrollable perceptions of personal control (M=12.03, SD=3.70) than those in the neutral  prime condition (M=10.18, SD=4.54), t(149)=2.75, p=0.007,  Cohen's d=0.45, 95% CI=[0.5204, 3.1748]. We used PROCESS  (Model 4) based on a 5000 bootstrap resampling (Hayes 2017)  to test the proposed mediating role of self-control in the effect of  romantic primes on heightened risk taking. In line with our prediction, perception of personal control played a mediating role in  the observed relationship, 95% CI=[0.0646, 0.5921] (Figure 1). Moving beyond a retrospective account of risk-taking behavior  in response to a self-report scale, Study 2 provided clear behavioral evidence for our theoretical proposition. Specifically, participants who were primed with romantic representations showed  a greater preference for bungee jumping tickets than those who  were primed with neutral concepts. Additionally, in line with  previous finings and the experimental results of Study 1, Study  2 found that individual differences in perceptions of self-control  mediated the positive effect of romantic representations on risktaking behavior. However, one important limitation of Study 2 is  that it only examined real-world risk-taking behavior that does  not carry any moral connotations. The findings of Study 1 suggest that individuals may also adopt an immoral risky behavior  when primed with romantic relationships. To shed light on this  possibility, Experiment 3 focused on risky behaviors in an immoral domain. 4 | Study 3 Study 3 aimed to extend our findings to a new domain. Unlike  bungee jumping, which is a risk-bearing entity (games for thrillseeking adventures after all) without depleting moral values, the  risky behavior in our third study may have ethical implications,  specifically, bribery. Thus, this study further tested our theory  by providing evidence that reminders of romantic concepts  could encourage participants to take immoral risk activities. 4.1 | Method 4.1.1 | Participants The adequate sample size was determined based on the medium effect size (f=0.15) for a two-way mixed-model ANOVA.  G*Power suggested that 98 participants was required to reach  95% statistical power. A total of 111 nonstudent adults from eastern China took part in the experiment for a monetary reward.  They were recruited via printing fliers, referrals, and social  media. There were 69 women and 62 men. The age of participants ranged from 20 to 55 years (M=39.7, SD=6.3). All the  participants belonged to Han ethnicity. The experimenter randomly assigned participants to either the romantic condition  (N=58) or the neutral condition (N=53). The distribution of  men and women across priming condition was almost equal,χ2 (2)=0.93, n.s. 4.1.2 | Materials and Procedure To increase the robustness of our experimental results, Study  3 employed a different priming technique to activate romantic representations, which was modeled after Luo et al. (2023).  Upon arrival at the laboratory, participants were seated in front  of a computer. After providing informed consent, participants  were told that the purpose of the experiment was about their decision about tourist attraction choices. They were presented with  a picture of a famous landmark in a small European town—a  medieval bridge. Participants were informed that as a popular  cultural tourism spot, there were stories behind it. In the romantic condition, the love story behind the bridge is about a lifelong romance that started with the bridge. In the nonromantic  FIGURE 1 | Mediation model illustrating the effect of priming condition on risk-taking behavior, mediated by self-control (Study 2). The value  outside the parentheses along the bottom path indicates the total effect, whereas the value inside the parentheses represents the direct effect after  controlling for the mediator. Asterisks denote significant paths (p<0.01).7 of 12 condition, a matchable story behind the bridge is about a lifelong  friendship between two boys that started with the bridge. After completing the priming task, participants were asked to  complete the same measure of perceptions of personal control  as Studies 1 and 2. Subsequently, they were invited for a website  evaluation (e.g., content, esthetics, and usability) that was actually  used to measure their intentions to adopt immoral risking behaviors. Following Kupor et al. (2015), we created two eye-catching  posts on the web page. One advertisement was meant to show  users some information about “how to become a briber” (an unethical and risky activity) and the other advertisement was meant  to show users some information about “how to look for best video  games” (a nonrisky activity). If participants wanted more detailed  information about the topics pertaining to the advertisements, they  could click on the posting. As this paradigm can hide the true purpose of the study, a highly plausible explanation for people to click  more on the link is that they are more interested in the adoption  of the advertised activity. The program had been developed for the  automatic recording of the number of clicks by each participant. 4.2 | Results and Discussion To examine the effect of romantic primes on immoral risk taking, we used a mixed-effects ANOVA model with priming condition being a between-subject factor (romantic attraction vs.  nonromantic attraction) and posting type being a within-subject  factor (immoral risk-taking vs. nonrisky activity). As predicted,  the main effects of priming condition and posting type were  not significant, ps >0.19. As predicted, significant interactions  emerged between priming condition and posting type, F (1,  110)=8.37, p=0.005, ηp 2=0.07 (Figure 2). Multiple paired comparisons (Tukey's test) showed that participants who were exposed to a romance-themed tourist attraction clicked more often  on the postings related to immoral risk taking than those who  were exposed to nonromantic attraction, p=0.01. However, we  found that participants in the two conditions showed almost the  same preference for looking at the postings introducing the nonrisky activity, p=0.11. In line with our prediction, participants who were primed with  romantic cues showed more uncontrollable perceptions of personal control (M=13.16, SD=4.26) than those in the neutral  prime condition (M=10.93, SD=4.20), t(110)=2.79, p=0.006,  Cohen's d=0.53, 95% CI=[0.6436, 3.8149]. Finally, we examined whether perception of personal played a mediating role in  accounting for the observed effect. For each participants, we created a risk-taking index (RTI) index by subtracting the numbers  of clicks on the postings for immoral risk taking (i.e., bribery)  from the numbers of clicks on the postings for nonrisky activities  (i.e., video game). The RTI indicated the individual's likelihood  of engaging in immoral risk taking. Lower RTIs represented a  lower risk-taking propensity, and higher RTIs were associated  with a greater risk-taking propensity. We used PROCESS (Model  4) based on a 5000 bootstrap resampling (Hayes 2017) to test the  proposed mediating role of self-control in the effect of romantic  primes on heightened risk taking. Again, perception of personal  control played a mediating role in the observed relationship, 95%  CI=[0.0764, 1.1731] (Figure 3). The results of Studies 1–3 provided consistent support for a self– control-based theory explaining the effects of romantic primes  on risk-taking behavior. Study 4 aimed to provide more direct evidence for this proposed theoretical perspective. Specifically, we  theorized that individuals' self-control would be lower when exposed to romantic cues compared to neutral cues, which would,  in turn, lead to increased engagement in risk-taking behaviors.  If our conceptualization holds, then the differential effects of romantic versus neutral cues on risk taking would be diminished  when individuals' self-control is enhanced. In other words, we  propose that the effects observed in Studies 1–3 would remain  significant under typical self-control levels but would be attenuated when self-control is bolstered, resulting in similar risktaking tendencies across both romantic and neutral conditions. 5 | Study 4 Studies 2 and 3 focused solely on measuring self-control perceptions rather than manipulating them. It is conceivable that  FIGURE 2 | Results from Experiment 3: the number of clicks varies as a function of posting type and priming condition.8 of 12 Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2025 the romantic primes employed in the present research could  result in both (a) increased risk taking and (b) diminished selfcontrol perceptions, without the latter necessarily influencing  the former. To provide more definitive evidence regarding the  mediating role of self-control, we conducted a 2 (condition type:  romantic cue vs. friendship cue)×2 (self-control level: regular  vs. high) between-subject experiment. 5.1 | Method 5.1.1 | Participants The adequate sample size for this study was determined based  on a medium effect size (f=0.25) for a two-way between-subject  ANOVA. Using G*Power, it was calculated that 82 participants  were required to achieve 80% statistical power. A total of 90  undergraduate students (47.8% female) were recruited from a  diverse array of majors at a large university in central China.  Participants received a cash incentive for their involvement in  the study. The age of participants ranged from 17 to 22 years  (M=19.4, SD=0.7). All participants were identified as belonging to the Han ethnic group. The experimenter randomly assigned participants to either the romantic condition (N=46) or  the neutral condition (N=44). 5.1.2 | Materials and Procedure The priming procedure and cover story employed in this study  closely resembled those used in Study 3. It may be argued that the  differing valence associated with romantic-related information  compared to neutral information could influence the results.  For example, prior research has demonstrated that affective  valence impacts risk-taking behaviors (e.g., Yuan et  al.  2021).  Consequently, an alternative interpretation of the current findings is that the priming procedure in the experimental condition  induces emotional responses, subsequently leading to increased  risk taking. However, we contest this interpretation. In Study 3, we utilized  romance and friendship cues for comparison. Both romantic relationships and friendships typically encompass a high degree of  affection, support, and companionship. This shared emotional  foundation is likely to produce similar positive feelings, such as  happiness or contentment. To provide further empirical support for our theorization, we  conducted a pretest with an independent cohort of 60 participants from the same university. Participants were randomly  assigned to either the romance (n=30) or friendship condition  (n=30) and were presented with the same stories used in Study  3. Subsequently, they completed a 10-item version of the Positive  and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) Short Form, which includes five items for positive affect and five items for negative  affect, to assess the emotional valence of the stories. The results  indicated no significant differences in either positive or negative  affect between the two story conditions (ps>0.55). Self-control levels were manipulated through situational modification strategies, consistent with approaches adopted in prior  studies (Duckworth et al. 2016; Fujita et al. 2020). These strategies involve altering elements of a person's environment to  reduce temptations and facilitate self-control. In the high selfcontrol condition, participants were instructed to read the story  carefully in a library, an environment generally characterized  by quiet spaces conducive to focused study, thereby reducing the  likelihood of distractions. In contrast, participants in the regular  self-control condition were asked to read the story in a dormitory, typically a lively environment filled with peers, which can  lead to increased socializing and distractions. Subsequently, participants completed the Chinese version of the  Brief Self-Control Scale (Tangney et al. 2004; Unger et al. 2016),  which consists of 13 items. They rated each item on a 5-point  Likert scale, ranging from 1 (Not at all true) to 5 (Exactly true).  Sample items included, “I am able to work effectively toward  long-term goals” and “I resist things that are bad for me.”  Finally, the research assistant asked participants to select a gift  ticket, which served as a behavioral measure of their nonmoral  risk taking similar to the procedure of Study 2. 5.2 | Results The results of a 2 (condition type: romantic cue vs. friendship  cue)×2 (self-control level: regular vs. high) logistic regression indicated a significant interaction effect on risk-taking  FIGURE 3 | Mediation model illustrating the effect of priming condition on risk-taking behavior, mediated by self-control (Study 3). The value  outside the parentheses along the bottom path indicates the total effect, whereas the value inside the parentheses represents the direct effect after  controlling for the mediator. Asterisks denote significant paths (p<0.01).9 of 12 tendencies, Wald χ2 = 4.55, p = 0.03. Consistent with our hypothesis, follow-up analyses demonstrated that when the selfcontrol level was regular, the preference for bungee jumping  tickets was greater in the presence of romantic cues compared to friendship cues (82.6% vs. 40.9%; χ2 = 8.32, p = 0.004).  However, this effect diminished when participants were asked  to make their choice in a library setting (41.7% vs. 42.9%;  χ2 = 0.01, p = 0.94). Interestingly, when exposed to friendship cues, the behavioral  pattern remained consistent regardless of whether the selfcontrol level was regular or high (40.9% vs. 42.9%; χ2 = 0.02,  p = 0.90). In contrast, when participants were presented with  romantic cues, the preference for risk taking significantly  decreased when self-control levels were high in the library  environment (compared to regular levels) (41.7% vs. 82.6%;  χ2 = 8.33, p = 0.004). These findings suggest that in the romantic condition, lower self-control levels were associated  with a heightened preference for risk-taking. Furthermore,  situational modification strategies effectively enhanced selfcontrol levels, thereby reducing the inclination toward risktaking behaviors. Further analysis using a 2×2 ANOVA (condition type: romantic cue vs. friendship cue)×2 (self-control level: regular vs. high)  revealed a significant interaction effect on self-control, F(1,  138)=5.60, p=0.02, ηp 2=0.06 (see Table 2). Follow-up tests indicated that, in the absence of self-control mitigation through  situational modification strategies, self-control levels were  significantly lower in the romantic condition compared to the  friendship condition (2.29 vs. 2.72; p=0.01). However, this effect  was attenuated when self-control was experimentally enhanced  in the library setting (2.78 vs. 2.66; p=0.47). As anticipated, in the “regular self-control” condition, the  indirect effects of romantic cues on risk taking were significantly mediated by self-control, with a 95% CI of [0.1845,  3.0792]. Conversely, no significant mediation effect was observed for the “enhanced self-control” condition, with a 95%  CI of [−2.0623, 1.1745]. These results underscore the pivotal  role of self-control as the underlying mechanism influencing  risk-taking behavior. 6 | General Discussion Across many languages and cultures, people tend to associate  love and uncontrollable risk (Lakoff 1987). In the current investigation, we provided the first experimental evidence for the notion that cuing ideas related to romantic love decreased belief in  personal control and, in turn, led to greater risk-taking tendencies. On the basis of self-report data drawing from a university  student population, Study 1 offered preliminary evidence that  priming inductions (such as exposure to romance-related words)  promoted risk taking. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study  1 and reported behavioral evidence that priming the concept of  romantic love resulted in a higher propensity to choose bungee  jumping tickets. Our third study took a step further and showed  that priming with romantic representations also increased risk  taking in an immoral domain, namely, bribery. In Study 4, we  delivered important insights for the process by which perceptions  of personal control mediated the effects of romantic primes on  risk-taking attitudes and behaviors. Considered together, these  findings suggest that priming with romantic representations elicits a perception of inability to exercise personal control, which  can translate into stronger intentions to adopt risky behaviors. As the first attempt to experimentally test the link between romantic primes and risk-taking behaviors in the nonmoral and  immoral domains, our research makes the following theoretical,  methodological, and practical contributions to the existing studies. First, the interconnections among romantic cues, decreased  self-control, and increased risk taking are consistent with PIT.  This phenomenon can be interpreted as a short-term strategy  designed to enhance mating opportunities, as individuals pursue immediate advantages that attract potential partners. For  males, risk-taking behaviors may be directly linked to courtship  strategies, where displays of bravery or the willingness to engage  in risky activities can enhance attractiveness (Sylwester and  Pawłowski 2011). Females may also engage in risky behaviors as  a means of signaling their desirability and social status (Dijkstra  et al. 2000). This alignment with PIT suggests that individuals  may prioritize mating success, albeit sometimes at the expense  of long-term investment in the well-being of their offspring. In addition, this work contributes to an emerging body of research on romantic primes by identifying an under-explored  psychological consequence. Several psychological studies have  demonstrated how exposure to romantic cues impacts intrapersonal, interpersonal, and social outcomes (Banse 1999; Green  et al. 2007; Luo et al. 2023; Wlodarski and Dunbar 2014). For example, priming with romantic representations can increase customers' intake of sweet foods, discourage sexual permissiveness,  and induce states of self-objectification among women (Dillman  Carpentier 2017; Sanchez and Broccoli 2008; Yang et al. 2019).  Extending this research area, we delve deeper into this issue  to explore the effectiveness of romantic cues in increasing risktaking behavior. We posited and found that people were more  likely to rely on their lay theory that romance is uncontrollable to  form a perception of failure at the act of personal control, leading  to a greater propensity to engage in risky behavior. By revealing  a potential negative consequence of romantic primes in the form  of increased risk-taking tendencies, we provide a more complete  picture of the ramifications of the romantic cue effects. Note, however, that the overwhelming number of past studies  in this area relied primarily on western participants, especially  WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) populations. Thus, this narrow database demonstrates  the potential limits of generalizability of observations. Crosslinguistic and cross-cultural research indicates that speakers  from various language communities may have different conceptualizations of romantic love. For example, by analyzing a corpus  TABLE 2 | The effects of priming (romantic vs. friendship) and  situational settings (library vs. dormitory) on self-control levels. Conditions Library Dorm Romance 2.78 (0.59) 2.29 (0.56) Friendship 2.66 (0.53) 2.72 (0.53)10 of 12 Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2025 of 200 songs, Al-Khaza'leh and Alzubi (2022) found that while  English songs use some orientational metaphors to construe the  concept of love, Arabic songs have a greater preference for the  themes of fluid, fire, and place. As culture shapes mindsets and  behaviors of its members (Li et al. 2013; Mourouzidou-Damtsa  et  al. 2019; Riley et  al. 2006), scholar may reasonably wonder  whether prior findings regarding the priming effects of romantic love can hold across diverse cultural contexts. By sampling  a typical non-WEIRD population and revealing the prominent  priming effects with romantic cues, the present research lends  more credence to the posited psychological universals. Second, our research has a set of methodological strengths.  Although social psychologists have long been fascinated with behavioral priming effects, a recent spate of high-profile nonreplications have put the soundness of many findings reported in the  social priming literature into question (Cesario 2014; Chivers 2019;  Molden 2014). To address the issue regarding previous controversies around social priming, we used different priming technique to  activate the concepts of romantic love because the incidental effect  found in one study may not constitute solid enough evidence of the  discussed phenomena. We believe that various types of priming  methodologies can provide converging evidence for the existence  of an overall effect and advance a better understanding of when  and how romantic primes influence risk attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, when assessing risk behaviors or their adverse impact, many published studies required their participants to reflect on their own behavior in response to self-report items. The  veracity and validity of such retrospective self-report data often  appear questionable because participant are not qualified scientific observers of their own actions and/or their retrospective  observations are subject to memory distortion and response bias  (Lejuez et  al.  2002). To overcome this limitation, Studies 2–4  used actual behavioral choices to infer individual risk-taking  propensity by going beyond standard self-report measurements.  The results showed that the observed effects are consistently  confirmed at the behavioral level. However, research should be  cautious in interpreting these results because although participants made an actual risk choice, they did not actually take risks  (e.g., getting off a bungee jumping and engaging in the bribery  of officials). Third, by demonstrating how priming with romantic representations influence risk-taking behaviors in different domains, our  research findings can have some important practical and managerial implications. On the one hand, managers and industrial  practitioners can bear our findings in mind that the mere exposure to romantic primes is sufficient to form a perception of  inability to exert personal control, along with the outcomes of  that perception for risk taking. Thus, we encourage designers  and marketers of destinations and attractions that are best for  adrenaline and extreme tours to use ideas related to romantic relationships in promoting risk-taking tourism (Moscardo 2020).  For example, attaching a romantic story to a bungee jumping  spot, if it is feasible, is likely to motivate more first-time jumpers  to enjoy the nerve-wracking experience. In some situations, however, activating the concept of romantic  love may lead to unintended consequences (e.g., immoral risk  taking) as our Study 3 suggests. In this regard, people should  avoid the use of romantic themes in some contexts and places to  reduce these unethical behaviors. For example, a general principle of street design is to provide spaces that enhance urban  safety and to promote crime prevention (Zeng et al. 2021). As  such, to support human health and well-being for all people,  designers of urban streets are discouraged to leverage banners,  curtains, and lights that signal romantic relationships and  enduring love stories in the high crime area. In addition, law  enforcement agencies should pay special attention to romancethemed bars, parks, art museums, and heritage properties where  immoral risky behaviors (e.g., drug abuse, violence, and tobacco  use disorder) are more likely to happen. Our findings also have some limitations, which imply a rich  avenue for future studies. First, although the present research  has investigated the mechanism that mediates the effects of  romantic cues on risk-taking, future research could explore  potential moderators. For example, a recent study conducted  by Speer et  al.  (2020) revealed that the correlation between  cognitive control and immoral behaviors depends on the individual's level of honesty. Specifically, for individuals who are  more likely to cheat or lie, cognitive control assists them in  making honest decisions. In contrast, for individuals who are  generally honest, cognitive control may enable them to engage  in dishonest behavior. As cognitive control plays different  roles in influencing risk taking and immoral behavior among  individuals with varying levels of honesty, the observed effects presented here may be different in honest and dishonest  individuals. Additionally, marital and relationship status may also moderate the effects observed in the current research (Sanchez and  Broccoli 2008). It is possible that the observed effects would be  more pronounced for people engaging in the experience of passionate love. It may be that people who are motivated to seek a  state of intense longing of union with another are more likely  to form a perception of losing personal control when they are  reminded of romantic love. On the contrary, people in long marriages, under romantic priming might not take greater risks because romance may have faded and life together is becoming  rather routine and dull. Alternatively, priming romantic representations might activate relational maintenance strategies.  Married people who are exposed to romantic cues may think  about how to keep their relationship fresh and kicking and thus  they may exhibit the same effect as single people under romantic priming. Future research tests these competitive predictions  would be valuable. Third, although we demonstrated the effectiveness of different priming paradigms of romance cues, these lab-based tasks  often have weak ecological validity because they do not happen in a natural setting. Future research could benefit from  adopting the tools that have a high degree of ecological validity  to experimentally unconsciously induce romantic thoughts.  Participants might have conversations about romantic live,  hear news about celebrity romantic stories, pass by romancethemed attractions, or be exposed to romantic music, and  these experiences could be invoked without explicit awareness.  Using these naturally occurring contexts as stimuli can yield  more insight into the real-world effects of romantic primes on  risk-taking behavior.11 of 12 Author Contributions Single author contribution. Ethics Statement All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were  in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and  its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Consent Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Conflicts of Interest The author declares no conflicts of interest. Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this study are available from the  corresponding author upon reasonable request. References Abbott-Chapman, J., C. Denholm, and C. Wyld. 2008. “Combining  Measures of Risk Perceptions and Risk Activities: The Development  of the RAPRA and PRISC Indices.” Risk Analysis: An International  Journal 28, no. 1: 69–79. Al-Khaza'leh, B. A., and A. A. F. Alzubi. 2022. “The Metaphorical  Conceptualization of Love in English and Arabic Songs: A  Contrastive Study.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies 12, no.  6: 1189–1199. 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