Are you addicted to the idiot box? Then, your relationship with your partner could be in jeopardy!
According to a new study, if you and your partner watch television frequently it might have a negative impact on your relationship.
Researchers from the Albion College found that the more people believed in television portrayals of romance, the less likely they were to be committed to their relationships.
“In this study I found that people who believe the unrealistic portrayals on TV are actually less committed to their spouses and think their alternatives to their spouse are relatively attractive,” Dr Jeremy Osborn, the article’s author said in a statement.
Over 390 married couples participated in the study and responded to questions about their satisfaction with their current romantic relationship, relationship expectations, relationship commitment, belief in television portrayals of romantic relationships, viewing frequency, and several others that focused on their spousal relationship.
The research also discovered that the more an individual believed in the television romance, the higher people believed their relationship costs were.
Relationship “costs” include a person’s loss of personal freedom, loss of time, or their partner’s unattractive qualities.
“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,” Osborn said.
The study will be published in the journal Mass Communication and Society.