“A movie is a nonthreatening way to get the conversation started,” said Ronald D. Rogge, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Rochester and the lead author of the study. “It’s really exciting because it makes it so much easier to reach out to couples and help them strengthen their relationships on a wide scale.”
The New York Times health columnist Tara Parker-Pope recently reported on a study at the University of Rochester which said that “sappy relationship movies made in Hollywood can actually help strengthen relationships in the real world.”
The initial goal of the study was to evaluate two types of therapist-led interventions called CARE and PREP. The CARE method focuses on acceptance and empathy in couples counseling, while PREP is centered on a specific communication style that couples use to resolve issues. The researchers wanted a third option that allowed couples to interact but did not involve intensive counseling.
The researchers divided 174 engaged or newlywed couples into four groups. One received counseling focusing on conflict resolution; a second received counseling in empathy-building; a third group watched romantic movies (examples: Love Story, Terms of Endearment, The Notebook, Date Night, She’s Having a Baby) and discussed them according to guidelines proposed by the researchers ; the fourth group wasn’t required to do anything.
After three years, the researchers reported in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 24 percent of the couples who fended for themselves had separated or divorced. The couples in the other three groups fared much better; only 11 percent of the couples in each group had split up.
Going into the study, the researchers expected that the CARE and PREP methods would have a pronounced effect on relationships and that the movie intervention might result in some mild improvements to relationship quality. To their surprise, the movie intervention worked just as well as both of the established therapy methods in reducing divorce and separation.
Science writer John Horgan wrote on Scientific American blog that the results are not surprising and they have just reaffirmed the notorious “Dodo bird verdict,” first proposed by psychologist Saul Rosenzweig in 1936 . After examining studies of Freudian psychoanalysis and rival therapies, Rosenzweig concluded that all are roughly as effective as each other. “Dodo bird verdict” refers to an episode in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland when a Dodo, after watching Alice and other characters race around an island, exclaims, “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes!”
The implication of the Dodo verdict is that psychological treatments work—when they work–by exploiting the placebo effect, the tendency of our hopes for improvement to become self-fulfilling. One positive implication of the Dodo verdict–and of the University of Rochester study–is that if you are seeking psychological relief, you don’t need to rely on expensive counseling from a professional therapist. If you think that doing something will make you feel better—or improve your relationships with others–there is a good chance that it will, he concludes.
The findings, while preliminary, have important implications for marriage counseling efforts. The movie intervention could become a self-help option for couples who are reluctant to join formal therapy sessions or could be used by couples who live in areas with less access to therapists. In determining the list of relationship movies that might be useful to couples, the researchers eliminated popular romantic comedies or “falling in love” movies like “Sleepless in Seattle” or “When Harry Met Sally.” Instead, they put together a list of movies that show couples at various highs and lows in their relationships. “Hollywood can place very unrealistic expectations on romantic relationships,” Dr. Rogge said. “The idea that you are supposed to fall in love instantly and effortlessly is not reality and not relevant to most couples who are two, three or four years into a relationship.”
Some of the movies on the list, like “Couples Retreat,” are funny and not necessarily realistic. “But they are enough to get a dialogue going,” Dr. Rogge said.
Since completing the initial study, Dr. Rogge and his colleagues have been recruiting couples from around the US to study the effect of the movie intervention on different relationships, including long-married and same-sex couples. Dr. Rogge noted that more research is needed to determine the effect on a variety of couples. One flaw of the study is that the control group was not truly randomized. While the couples in the control group seemed similar to other couples in the study in terms of demographics and relationship quality, further research is needed to validate the movie method.