Lifestyle
3 experts explain why brains favour rom-com endings
Hindustan Times·
Hindustan Times spoke to 3 experts on why audiences return to romantic comedies. Neurologist Dr Sachin Adukia said prediction is rewarded when expected reunions arrive. Mehezabin Dordi said rom-coms let viewers sample intimacy in a low-risk setting. Kakul Faruqi said humour activates reward regions including the nucleus accumbens. All three cautioned against equating movie pleasure with falling in love.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Viewers seeking comfort media have a clinical framing for why predictable happy endings feel rewarding.
- Dordi described rom-coms as a relatively risk-free way to sample intimacy, anticipation and vulnerability.
- Adukia said claiming every rom-com causes a dopamine spike is an exaggeration.
What's Happening
- HT Lifestyle interviewed clinicians at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital and Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital.
- Adukia cited films such as Notting Hill and Bridget Jones' Diary as examples of resolved uncertainty.
- Faruqi pointed to brain-imaging research on humour and the nucleus accumbens.
What The Clinicians Caveated
- Adukia said dopamine participates in motivation, learning and reward prediction, not pure happiness generation.
- Dordi said romantic stories might involve reward and emotion regions without matching falling in love.
- Faruqi said it would be an overstatement to guarantee a particular dopamine or oxytocin release from romance viewing.
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