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Watching Netflix Actually Makes You A Better Person Because, Science

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I’m in love. Seriously. I know that sounds corny. Dumb little white girl fell in love. Again. But this time it’s different. It’s a love that’s excited to be with me whenever I get home. A love that would rather hangout in bed with me and order a pizza than go out to some stuffy club. It’s a love that’s there for me when I’m sad and makes me laugh harder than anything when I’m happy. It’s a love that always knows what I want, when I want it. And above everything else, it’s a love that changes me.

Ready for the truth bomb? I’m in love with Netflix.

I don’t mean like, “Oh I throw it on when I’m falling asleep,” in love. I mean like, “It’s all I think about all day every day until we are reunited,” in love. Sure, it’s a problem. But do you know how many fucks I give?

Zero. None. Nada. Absolutely no fucks. Because I. Love. Television. And for that, I will never apologize.

And luckily for me (and all of you other lazies), a new study has been released basically saying that we’re better than everyone else in the world. According to Science of Us, people who watch fictional dramas are better at life than everyone else. Or something like that.

From Science of Us:

In the paper, the authors describe two experiments that led them to their pro-TV conclusion. In one, they asked about 100 people to first watch either a television drama (Mad Men or The West Wing) or a nonfiction program (How the Universe Works or Shark Week: Jaws Strikes Back).

Afterward, all of the participants took a test psychologists often use to measure emotional intelligence: They’re shown 36 pairs of eyes and are told to judge the emotion each pair is displaying. The results showed that the people who’d watched the fictionalized shows did better on this test than those who watched the nonfiction ones.

They tried this again, only switching up the programs (The Good Wife and Lost versus Nova and Through the Wormhole) and adding a control group, too: people who took the eye-reading test without watching any television first. Again, their results showed that the fiction viewers’ empathy scores were superior, though the nonfiction viewers’ scored higher on average than those who hadn’t watched anything beforehand.

Yes. You read that right. Watching “Mad Men” makes you more empathetic. Maybe it’s because we feel bad for Don and his twisted life. Maybe it’s because we’re mesmerized by his hypnotizing trouser snake. Whatever it is, television dramas make us better people.

So the next time you plop down to watch “Grey’s” or “Gossip Girl” for the fifth time, just know that you’re doing something good. You’re working on becoming a better, more understanding person, and for that (and stealing your ex-boyfriend’s Netflix password) you make no apologies.

[via Science of Us, Elite Daily]

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Rachel Varina

(yeahokaywhat) Aspiring to be the next Tina Fey, Rachel spends her free time doing nothing to reach that goal. While judging people based on how they use "they're" vs. "there" on social media, she likes eating buffalo chicken dip, watching other people's Netflix, and wearing sweatpants way more than is socially acceptable.

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