(Life's Little Mysteries) New research reveals why people like to reread books, re-watch movies and generally repeat the same experiences over and over again. It’s not addictive or ritualistic behavior, but rather a conscious effort to probe deeper layers of significance in the revisited material, while also reflecting on one's own growth through the lens of the familiar book, movie or place.
Cristel Russell, a consumer behavior researcher at American University, and Sidney Levy, professor of marketing with joint appointments at the University of Arizona and Northwestern University, interviewed 23 individuals to identify the underlying reasons for what they call "re-consumption." As detailed in a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Consumer Research, they found that re-consumption is not merely a nostalgic attempt to retrieve the past, but instead an active search for new meaning, and one that has great emotional value.
"Because re-experiencing offers a way to look at oneself through the same lens but with different eyes, it offers many therapeutic benefits," Russell wrote in an email. "So long as one is actively conscious of the re-experience (and it's not a passive, uncontrollable addiction), it can offer many self-reflexive opportunities."
For example, one study participant was a church minister who regularly rereads the Bible. He said he sometimes interprets familiar passages differently and therefore has to amend the views he might have expressed publicly. "He saw this as a sign of growth," Russell told Life’s Little Mysteries.
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