Drinking, smoking or eating comfort food with a partner improves your relationship
Drinking, smoking or eating comfort food with a partner improves your relationship, but could be harmful to your health in the long run, study suggests
Being comfortable with your partner is seen as a sign of a strong, stable relationship.
However, it seems that being settled can lead loving partners to also bring out the worst in each other.
Researchers have found that couples who did unhealthy things together, like lounging on the couch all day, felt closer together the next day than couples who chose to go for a walk or run.
And they warned that this heightened sense of intimacy could harm our ability to be healthy in the long run.
The team, from the University of Zurich, analyzed data from three previous diary studies of unhealthy behavior in couples.
Researchers have found that couples who did unhealthy things together, such as lying on the couch all day, felt closer to each other the next day than those who chose to go for a walk or run (stock image)
In both the smoking and sedentary study, participants reported higher relationship satisfaction and closeness the day after they engaged in unhealthy behaviors together (stock image)
In the first, smokers recorded how many cigarettes they smoked each day for a month.
In the second, inactive couples wore accelerometers for a month to track when they were sedentary together.
And in the third part, couples took pictures of their food every day to record how often they ate meals high in fat, sugar or salt.
In all studies, participants rated their closeness and satisfaction with their relationship every day.
In both the smoking and sedentary study, participants reported higher relationship satisfaction and closeness the day after they engaged in unhealthy behaviors together.
In the latest study, there was no change in closeness or relationship satisfaction when couples consumed unhealthy foods together.
Writing in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the team wrote, “It is possible that a willingness to tolerate long-term health or well-being risks when engaging in shared problematic behaviors … unique experience that brings partners closer.”
Smoking or eating comfort foods is often used to reduce stress — so couples may choose to engage in these behaviors with their partner “because they want to improve their partner’s well-being,” she added.