Have you ever rewatched the same show for the tenth time or picked up a book you have already read cover to cover? You are not alone. Everyone has their own version of “comfort” media they cannot seem to get enough of. While this has often been chalked up to nostalgia, there is real science behind our love for the familiar.
Watching a new show or picking up a new book can be exciting. It has the power to take you to a different world with a new set of characters, stories, locations, and even languages. However, the new is always unpredictable. You mentally step into a brand-new world, learn its rules from the ground up, and then hope it does not go off the rails or that the creator does not stray too far from the original story (we all saw what Riverdale became after season one…)
The familiar may be predictable, but sometimes, our brains crave that simplicity. We know how it is going to end and what emotions it will evoke within us. There is something universally comforting about recognising a familiar face, revisiting a known place, or repeating an activity. These warm, comforting feelings lead us to repeat the action over and over in order to feel like that again. This is called the Mere-Exposure Effect, or Familiarity Principle. This is the psychological effect of repeated exposure to a stimulus that enhances perceptual fluency. This allows the stimulus to be effortlessly processed. In layman’s terms, the more you see or experience something, the easier your brain finds it to understand and process. Therefore, you might like it more than something new that could cause you unease.
In today’s fast-paced and chaotic world, a feeling of powerlessness can become overwhelming. Rewatching old movies or re-reading your favourite book can offer a small but significant sense of control. Knowing exactly what will happen provides order and stability, especially when life feels unpredictable. This has been dubbed the Mister Rogers Effect. He began every episode by changing into his cardigan sweater and shoes while singing the same reassuring words. Putting on a movie that you know where the storyline leads and where all the jokes are creates the same kind of comfort that a routine provides. Dorothy is always going to click her heels three times and go back home to Kansas.
Humans conserve energy by choosing a course of action that requires the least amount of effort possible. This is why desire paths exist in the first place – people would rather make their own path if it is shorter than the actual path. The principle of Least Effort explains that watching a familiar show takes less cognitive effort than an unfamiliar show, and sometimes, that’s exactly what we want. Reruns of The Office feel easier than committing to a brand-new show on Netflix that might be cancelled after one season. In a way, it can feel like self-care to just turn our minds off for a little while.
So why do we keep coming back to stories we already know? Simply put, it’s because we enjoy them. The reasons we loved them the first time round are still there, waiting to be felt again. Comfort media is more than just entertainment – it is a way to reconnect with ourselves, find emotional stability, and take a break from the noise of everyday life. You are not just indulging in nostalgia; it is also a therapeutic form of self-care. After all, hearing the line “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” still brings the same warm feelings on rewatch number 87 as it did the first time.
