If you're a sucker for fairy tales, Nancy Meyers films, and happily ever afters, you're in luck. It turns out being a hopeless romantic isn't so hopeless after all.
A forthcoming study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (via Glamour) finds that people who identified with strong romantic notions reported greater feelings of satisfaction and commitment within their relationships. It is worth noting, however, that the 270 18-to-28-year-olds interviewed for the study were already in committed relationships, as opposed to being single, Katherine-Heigl types yearning for Mr. Right.
The research did find that those in relationships weren't necessarily setting themselves up for failure with their high expectations.
"Basically, if you are expecting Prince Charming, you are going to be disappointed when you meet a guy who doesn't own a castle, even if he is great in every other way," researcher Sarah Vannier, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University in Canada, said of the study's assumption.
But that wasn't the case.
"People with romantic beliefs did have higher expectations, but they were also more likely to see their partner as meeting those expectations," Vannier explained. "It is hard to say whether this is because they are seeing their partner through rose-colored glasses — e.g., their beliefs about Prince Charming make them think their partner is Prince Charming, even if other people might think that he is a frog — or if this is because they found and chose a partner who meets their expectations."
In other words, there's no shame in your rom-com-loving game. Go ahead and watch The Notebook again to celebrate.
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