Watching romantic comedies ‘could ruin your love life’

LONDON: Planning to go for a romantic comedy with your boyfriend this weekend? Well, scrap all your plans, for according to a study, ‘rom-coms’ can ruin love lives.

The study has found that romantic comedies such as Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill give people unrealistic - and potentially unhealthy - expectations about real-life relationships. Unlikely happy endings, improbable plots and faux philosophy are to blame, they say.

The influence of films is instilling a warped sense of the “perfect” relationship within society and providing unrealistic expectations about romance. They are also oversimplifying the process of falling in love and wrongly giving the impression that it could and should be achieved without any effort, it is claimed.

To reach the conclusion, the team studied 40 top box office films released between 1995 and 2005. They then asked hundreds of people to fill out a questionnaire to describe their beliefs and expectations when it came to relationships. They found that fans of films such as You’ve Got Mail, The Wedding Planner and While You Were Sleeping, often fail to communicate with their partners effectively, with many holding the view that if someone is meant to be with you, then they should know what you want without you needing to tell them.

There is emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people’s minds. The problem is that while most know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise.