Next time, try some soft music, a bottle of wine and ‘Psycho’

How can any guy compete with Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle or You’ve Got Mail? They can’t, and a study out of Scotland confirms it — romantic comedies are bad for relationships because they create unrealistic expectations.

Researchers at Heriot Watt University’s Family and Personal Relationships Laboratory in Edinburgh studied 40 romantic comedies released between 1995 and 2005, and found that problems reported by couples in relationship counseling reflect misconceptions about love and romance depicted in the movies.

About the blogger

Bob Collins

bcollins@mpr.org • @newscut

Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.