COUCH POTATOES THINK ëFRIENDS’ REALLY ARE
Repeat after us, TV fans: Tony Soprano, Frasier and Seinfeld are not really your pals, even though you may think they are.
A new study found people watching TV believe they have an improved social life and wider circle of “Friends” – but in reality, it’s only in their imagination.
That’s the word from sociologist Satoshi Kanazawa of Indiana University in Pennsylvania, who looked at the TV-viewing habits of 600 Americans.
“My basic contention is that in evolution, our entire body has difficulty comprehending stimulus that didn’t exist 200,000 years ago,” Kanazawa told The Post.
“Therefore, our brain doesn’t know that we don’t have more friends when we watch TV, that they are just actors.
“We found that people who watch TV think they have these friends – even if they don’t have any real friends, they think they have them.”
Sitcoms and prime-time dramas were the most rewarding shows for women. Men responded best to news programs.
Kanazawa said the brain’s mechanisms for recognizing friends evolved long before TV came along.
That means the subconscious counts any face it sees regularly as a real-life friend, even it’s just on TV.
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