Attitudes toward Romantic Love Among American, German, and Japanese Students

University students from West Germany, Japan, and the United States completed the Hobart (1958) and Knox-Sporakowski (1968) scales measuring attitudes toward love and romance. The results generally confirm Goode's (1959) theoretical position that romantic love is valued highly in less traditional cultures with few strong, extended-family ties and is less valued in cultures where kinship networks influence and reinforce the relationship between marriage partners. In general, Japanese subjects reported significantly lower agreement with attitudes valuing romantic love than did West German subjects. Responses from American subjects fell between those of the other two cultures.