Drop the Remote: Are On-Screen Romances Ruining Your Love Life?

Do you love watching shows that centre around love and relationships? Are you thrilled whenever Don’t Tell the Bride or a film like The Notebook comes onto your telly screen?

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a bit of soppy romantic goodness every now and then, but a new study has revealed that people who watch romantic TV shows and films are less likely to be committed to their real-life relationships. Yes, really.

Apparently it’s all down to basic psychology. If you believe in the unrealistic portrayals of romance on your telly box, your own real-life relationship could pay the price.

In the study, which was carried out by researchers at the Albion College in Michigan,  392 married individuals were questioned about how happy they were in their relationships, their commitment and their beliefs in TV portrays of relationships.

The results showed that the participants who truly believed in on-screen romances (because Edward and Bella were totes meant for each other) were less likely to be committed to their current relationship and far more likely to be drawn to alternatives to their other half. Worrying, right?

Is your choice in television programmes having a negative impact on your love life?

“People with higher belief in television portrayals might see their relationships as more costly than their lower belief counterparts do, but because they also expected higher costs they are no less satisfied,” the researchers wrote in their paper, which was published in the journal Mass Communication and Society.

“We live in a society that perpetually immerses itself in media images from both TV and the web, but most people have no sense of the ways those images are impacting them,” said Jeremy Osborn, the lead author of the study.

“The rate of marriage failure in the US is not dropping, and it is important for people to have a sense of what factors are leading to the failure of so many relationships,” he added.

Have you ever compared your own relationship to an on-screen romance?