The psychology of rewatching

JESSICA SCHUMAKER – “In these uncertain times…” Sound familiar? This phrase has been repeated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and never ceases to cause a spike of anxious irritation in my mind. The uncertainty and stress of the past two years has led many people to seek different forms of escapism. For me and many others, salvation came in the form of media consumption.

Specifically, I mean the TV show you flip to when the day hits too hard, or the movie you watch when you’re sick. What makes our brains horde media that brings us comfort like  crows with silver trinkets? After all, these shows and movies aren’t new. Usually, they’re something we’ve seen multiple times– likely to the point of quotation. Thus, why are we drawn back to our old favorites time and time again?

The answer is simple: nostalgia. People are comforted by the familiar. The stress of daily life, especially during a global pandemic, leads people to seek sources of entertainment free from surprise. Obvious choices are shows with low-stakes and simple problems that can be solved in a 22 minute runtime, such as The Great British Bake-Off, or my personal favorite, Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

However, some people take a less conventional approach, such as Elizabeth Cohen, an associate professor specializing in media psychology at West Virginia University. Her preferred means to decompress is watching episodes of Netflix’s Black Mirror, a series infamous for its explorations of different consequences of advancing technology.

Bleak, dystopian, and violent entertainment also has the potential to relax viewers. Depressed and lonely people, for instance, often list their favorite shows as those whose stories revolve around characters in similar declining mental states. These people derive a sense of solidarity in seeing others, even if they were fictional, face and overcome similar experiences. Conversely, a kind of perverse joy comes from looking at someone else’s experiences and being reminded of the many ways life could be worse.

According to Cohen, however, it’s less about the genre of media consumed and more about the feelings it induces. “There’s a lot of comfort in knowing something’s going to happen,” Cohen stated. “You don’t have to exert a lot of cognitive energy, so it doesn’t feel taxing.” 

When rewatching TV you’ve seen before, you know that unexpected plot-twist, you know the characters, and you know who lives and dies. There is no room for shock, fear, or devastation – all emotions we avoid when stressed. Instead, we can allow our attention to lessen, and our brains to slip into a lower-processing mode.

This comforting lack of uncertainty that accompanies the rewatching of our favorite TV shows is easily explained by observed neural activity. Lucy Spicer, a psychological coach, states, “The neural activity activated by rewatching a TV show that we like causes the release of feel-good chemicals, like dopamine, and we are left with that warm, soothing feeling in our bodies.” Additionally, watching a certain show can activate paired associations in the brain. This means we often are reminded of happy memories and relaxing experiences when watching certain shows, allowing us to relive the peaceful emotions felt during those moments.

Other explanations can be found in cognitive load theory, which states a limit exists for the amount of stress we can put on our working memory. Working memory involves small chunks of information that are processed to complete tasks. Due to the pandemic, our brains experience an incredible amount of information daily, much of it forcing us to make stressful decisions about our health, lifestyles, jobs, and families. This increased cognitive load pushes people to seek activity free from guesswork, anticipation, and surprises, i.e. rewatching New Girl for the fourth time.

As we continue to navigate balancing the many factors of our lives during the pandemic, it is vital to take time to allow ourselves to decompress and process each day. Whatever that process is for you, be it a movie so loved you mouth the dialogue or a TV show that hasn’t aired in years, indulge yourself. 

Copy Editors: Elizabeth Conner and Cooper Camp

Photographer: Shweta Mistry