In an article at Utah’s KSL.com,  psychologist and author Dr. Juli Slattery compared romance novels to pornography. As the article stirred controversy on Twitter, author Jason Pinter started a satirical “romance kills” hashtag (examples follow below).

Here is an excerpt from the article: “Men are very visual, and viewing pornography produces a euphoric drug in the body. This drug is the reason pornography becomes addictive. When the natural high wears off, a man will crash and feel depressed (as happens with any drug) and crave another hit. Women are more stimulated by romance than sex, so when they read romantic stories (and they don’t have to be explicit to work) they can experience the same addicting chemical release as men do.”

What do you think? The article explored Slattery’s book, Finding the Hero in your Husband, ultimately offering tips for avoiding romance novel addiction. Step one was simple: “commit to stop reading any books that are contributing to this problem.” (Image via)


Amy Boggs: “The Titanic hit that iceberg because the lookouts were too busy reading romance novels.”
Rachel Grant: “Fleas carrying black death were imported into Europe in romance novels.”
Michaela Basham: “2/3 of car wrecks are caused by drivers jackknifing when realizing they forgot to buy the new Nora Roberts.”