Although the personality of each of its members greatly influences relationships, it is no less true that The habits that are shared are what really make that love bond work or not We may not be too similar to the person we are dating, but if there are routines in our daily lives that make us feel a special connection, the emotional union will be reinforced.
Decades ago, these healthy habits for a relationship could be taking a walk, going to a specific place full of calm, or simply chatting. Today, to all these possible sources of shared well-being, a new routine that is very common in relationships has been added: watch tv series together In addition, this routine has special advantages, according to research.
Watching series and movies as a couple brings more together
Times change and with them so do relationships. The development of new technology may have led to the formation of loving bonds between people from very different backgrounds, without circles of friends in common, but easy access to pieces of fiction televised or posted on the Internet helps these couples create their own stories shared anecdotes and, in general, all kinds of beliefs, opinions and emotions linked to the hobby of following series together.
According to research, watching series at the same time becomes an emotionally significant experience that is experienced as something shared, in a similar way to what would happen if the members of the couple experienced first-hand relevant events that occur in their close social circles. The fictional characters become part of both of their lives, and that makes them feel closer.
How do you know this? A team of psychologists from the University of Aberdeen, led by researcher Sarah Gomillion, have designed a way to measure the effect that series, movies and TV programs have on relationships, as we will see.
How was the study done?
For this research, whose results have been published in the scientific journal Journal of Personal and Social Relationships, The psychologists recruited 259 students with a stable partner (the average duration of these relationships was 16 months) to answer the questions in questionnaires designed specifically for this research.
These questions addressed topics related to the level of satisfaction with the couple’s relationship, how much time was spent watching television series as a couple, and how many shared friends one had with the couple. Also included was the topic of how much time was spent reading books together.
The results showed that people who shared more friends with their partner and who tended to watch more television series with the other person showed a higher level of satisfaction with their relationship. However, The link between watching television together and feeling good with your partner was much more powerful in those people who shared few or no friendships with the other. Specifically, the high scores in mutual trust and sentimental closeness stood out.
In a second part of the research, another 128 people with a partner were taken as volunteers and, in this case, divided into two groups. The first group was asked to think about the number of friends they shared with their partner, and the second was asked the opposite, to think about the friends they did not share.
Then, all volunteers answered questions about the amount of television and book reading time they shared with their partner, about the degree of motivation they felt to spend more time sharing those kinds of moments and about their level of satisfaction with the relationship.
The results showed that those people who were more accustomed to sharing television time with their partner and who in turn were conditioned to think about their lack of shared friendships tended to express more desire to spend time watching series, movies and programs together as if they knew that this is beneficial for their relationship.
A little”blanket and movie” doesn’t hurt
Of course, these data are only an approximation of the way in which spending moments together watching series can strengthen the common experiences and references that we use on a daily basis to express ourselves with our partner; It is still necessary to investigate more and find out if there is a pure cause-effect relationship between this habit and the strength of loving bonds.
Besides, We must remember that all excess is bad , and almost certainly making those moments lying on the couch the main basis of a relationship cannot be good (sooner or later the mototonia will take its toll, if it doesn’t first the back pain). However, for the moment we already have more excuses to make a ritual of that hobby based on the “manta y peli”. Your emotional life can thank you in the short term.