The Romantic Love and Related Myths in Colombia: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: In Colombia, domestic violence is an important cause of aggression against women with machoism, jealously, and infidelity being the key triggers. Some research indicates that romantic love and related myths may be contributing factors towards the emer-gence or persistence of domestic violence, as they reaffirm unequal and patriarchal gender roles. Method: This work is a systematic review aimed to synthase the empirical studies about romantic love in Colombia. Following the Prisma protocol, the sample was made up of high-im-pact articles published in specialized databases about social science with a focus on psychology and 26 were selected. Results: The results pointed that in the Colombian context, the romantic myths are found related to domestic violence, and jealousy and infidelity appearing as signs of aggression. Conclusion: It is concluded that the background of the social beliefs about romantic love in the Colombian culture is highly patriarchal, holding is an unequal, dominating and controlling relationship between the sexes that conduces the gender violence in relationships.