What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
If you suffer from anxiety, rewatching might be a kind of therapy you didn’t know you were using. Anxious people prefer to know what’s going to happen next, and rewatches are perfect for that.
According to media psychologist Pamela Rutledge, rewatching a movie or TV show can also be a way for people to control their emotions. If you watch a comedy, you’ll laugh. If you watch a romantic film, you’ll swoon, and so forth.
The pandemic specifically has seen a rise in people rewatching old favorites, and many are tying the element of controlling one’s emotions through rewatches to an even greater sense of control amid this out-of-control world around us.
Researchers have found that the combined comfort of repetition and the huge effort of processing new information, especially in today’s age of constant bad news, make the rewatching experience truly healing.
Psychologist Neel Burton, author of 'Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions,' also explained to HuffPost that rewatching shows is a way of using nostalgia as a form of consolation. It makes us feel good when we reminisce and escape the present moment for a little while.
“Our everyday is humdrum, often even absurd,” Burton says. “Nostalgia can lend us much-needed context, perspective and direction, reminding and reassuring us that our life is not as banal as it may seem.”
“It can become really therapeutic,” Rutledge says. “Watching the same piece multiple times reaffirms that there’s order in the world and that it can create a sense of safety and comfort on a primal level.”
The most energy-consuming aspect of watching a show or movie at home is choosing what to watch, which is why we love bingeing shows, especially shows that we've already seen and that we know we like. The reward is immense.
Beyond feeling like the world is out of control, it can also be a very lonely place. Research has shown that nostalgia can counteract loneliness through creating a sense of optimism.
Even more interestingly, looking back to the past can create a positive impact in the present and future by reminding us that there have been and will once again be meaningful moments and experiences for us.
Psychologists call our natural idealization of the past "rosy retrospection," so we tend to look fondly on those old films and TV shows.
The "status quo bias" suggests that people tend to stick with previous decisions since the cost of coming to a new decision is mentally tiring (think: staying at a current job to avoid looking for a new one). We tend to prefer things as they are to avoid the extra effort, and rewatches are a great example of that. It's often just too much effort to try something new.
A study by Cristel Antonia Russell and Sidney Levy explains how rewatches help give us perspective. "Reengaging with the same object, even just once, allows a reworking of experiences as consumers consider their own particular enjoyments and understandings of choices they have made." By connecting old memories with our new perspectives, we then gain a kind of "existential understanding."
Our TV habits aren't just entertainment anymore. Rather, they're increasingly indicative of our values, interests, mindset, and sources of comfort. With every rewatch, we turn down a new experience and further cement ourselves in those values, interests, and mindsets.
One of the few ways we get to control our time is with what we watch, and many people have very little free time to watch TV, so the choice matters. If we chose something new and hated it, we might blame ourselves and consider that precious time wasted.
The term "reconstructive consumption" describes the phenomenon of rewatching a show or film to "remind themselves what happened and pick up on smaller details that they could appreciate once they caught up to the overall plot."
Derek Thompson writes in The Atlantic that rewatches feel so good because of a psychological phenomenon wherein people develop a preference for things they're more familiar with. "The scientific term for this is 'mere exposure effect,' meaning that we like something more merely because we've been previously exposed to it," he explained.
The next time you go for a rewatch, take a second to think about why you're so attracted to it, what you're craving. It might help you when you're looking for new things to watch, or it can just give you a better sense of self as you go ahead and watch it anyway (like you probably will).
Sources: (HuffPost) (News24) (The Atlantic) (The Washington Post) (Greatist) (Mind Cafe)
See also: The best TV shows from the ‘90s
That previous time was likely one of safety, certainty, and happiness, and that "autobiographical nostalgia," as this remembering of our past selves is called, can help bring back positive feelings. That's perhaps why so many of us like to watch things we first saw at a much younger age, to remember our youthful feeling that everything was possible.
Repetition to a degree is perfectly fine. The dangers come only when you begin to completely abandon the present for the past, and if you enter into a disillusioned state.
Another theory is that rewatching can give us not only a nostalgic memory of what we're watching, but also of ourselves when we last watched it, and perhaps also the people with whom you watched it.
Additionally, many people will choose a TV show they've seen instead of a new film because of the smaller commitment, even though they'll probably watch several episodes. This might relate to our shortened attention spans, as a 30-minute episode is easer for us to wrap our heads around.
If you find yourself amid a sea of new TV series and popular movies, but still keep going back to ‘The Office’ or to that old rom-com, you’re not alone. Especially now, as the world increasingly spirals in turmoil, there are increasing numbers of people going back to rewatch things they’ve already seen.
It turns out there’s a surprising amount of research behind this phenomenon that extends far beyond the simple fact of liking something. Click through to learn all about the various psychological reasons behind why you're neglecting your watchlist in favor of rewatches.
We're scared of commitment when it comes to TV shows, so dedicating ourselves to several seasons of a new show can feel overwhelming. Mostly, this stems from a fear of being disappointed, since all it takes is one wrong character death or one frustrating finale to ruin a series.
One of the best perks of rewatching a show specifically is that you don't have to commit. You can watch one episode and not have to watch the rest for weeks to come, you can pick it up at any point along the story and drop it as you please.
According to the Mere Exposure Effect then, we not only rewatch things we like, but we like them more each time we watch them. It's as logical as getting closer to a person after you spend more time with them.
Rewatches also ensure that people who are prone to anxiety can fully relax since they won't need to process new information.
In addition to the status quo bias, when we're faced with too many choices in a short amount of time (from work to the pandemic to family care and so forth) our ability to make choices becomes impaired. Thus, the idea of scrolling through hundreds of film options becomes unbearable, so the rewatch becomes even more appealing.
Can’t stop binging the same shows? Here's why
Psychology explains why we keep going back to the same shows and movies
LIFESTYLE Curiosities
If you find yourself amid a sea of new TV series and popular movies, but still keep going back to ‘The Office’ or to that old rom-com, you’re not alone. Especially now, as the world increasingly spirals in turmoil, there are increasing numbers of people going back to rewatch things they’ve already seen.
It turns out there’s a surprising amount of research behind this phenomenon that extends far beyond the simple fact of liking something. Click through to learn all about the various psychological reasons behind why you're neglecting your watchlist in favor of rewatches.