Modern Love

According to a recent study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, watching the same television shows, scheduling regular movie nights or even reading the same book can make couples feel like part of the same social world. The researchers found that sharing a social network of friends and family members with a romantic partner uniquely enhances the quality of your relationship.

Sharing a social identity is a key component of interdependence in romantic relationships. In particular, sharing a social network of friends and family members with a romantic partner enhances relationship quality, but maintaining an integrated social network is not always possible. When people lack a shared circle of friends with their partners, sharing media like TV shows, books, and movies with partners may compensate for this deficit and restore closeness. Two studies examined the influence of sharing real and fictional social worlds on relationship outcomes. The reseachers findings showed that when people lack shared friends with their romantic partners, sharing media predicts greater relationship quality and people become motivated to share media with their partners. These studies show that shared media can enhance interdependence and allow people to compensate for lacking a shared social network in the real-world.

Of course, not everyone's circle of friends can overlap. And when that happens the researchers discovered that couples who geek out on shows and movies together tend to feel closer and more confident in their relationships. Those who were invested in the same media also reported a stronger connection—and not simply because of the added cuddling time on the couch. The study analyzed the couples' shared media interests separately from the amount of time they spent together physically, and the benefits transcended.