Since before Claire and Phil on Modern Family, the fictional romances of TV have influenced the very real relationships in our lives. As captivating as those small screen marriages may be, is that such a good thing? Researchers at Albion College think not.

In a study conducted to understand TV and its effect on relationships, married individuals were surveyed about relationship expectations, happiness and commitment, as well as their television habits. The survey also asked whether subjects agreed with statements like “Television presents relationships as they really are in life,” and “Television helps me understand what I can expect from relationships.” The participants who strongly agreed with those statements, and those people who regularly watched TV portrayals of romantic relationships, expressed more dissatisfaction with their marriages.

Dr. Jeremy Osborn, who conducted the study said:

We live in a society that perpetually immerses itself in media images from both TV and the web, but most people have no sense of the ways those images are impacting them.

Referencing some of TV’s most popular shows, from Modern Family to The Bachelor, and films like Twilight and The Notebook, Osborn discovered that, naturally, people compared their own relationships to the fictional ones:

Television basically becomes another influence on your expectations.

The participants indicated that the more they “believed” in TV romance, the more they thought of their relationship in terms of its “costs,” such as the amount of time they spent on a relationship, or the ways they could find a partner unattractive.

A strong and stable relationship requires a commitment that is rare in television depictions, and love takes a presence of self and mind that is difficult to cultivate when the TV is on all the time. Not that curling up on the couch with your loved one and some entertainment is all bad. We just owe it to ourselves and our partners to realize where the escapes of fiction end and the reality of our real lives begins.

Everyone knows that going to the grocery store on an empty stomach is a no-no — you’ll make rash, bad decisions. Research reveals another activity to avoid if you are hungry: arguing with your partner. Indeed, being hungry and angry – hangry – at the same time is never a good combination. New research explains why: lower levels of blood sugar may make people angrier with their significant other and more likely to lash out.

The study was not your garden-variety lab research study—it involved voodoo dolls, pins and loud horns. There were 107 couples in the study and each person was given 51 pins and a voodoo doll that represented his/her spouse. Their blood sugar was measured twice a day for the 21 days the experiment lasted. At the end of each day, they were asked to insert pins into the dolls expressing their anger. The lower the glucose levels, the more pins they inserted. Strikingly, even couples that reported having a good relationship were more likely to insert pins into their dolls if they were hungry.

Being hungry didn’t just cause partners to express anger at a doll. Another phase of the study demonstrated that people who had lower levels of glucose were more willing to blast their spouses with the horns for a longer period of time than those who weren’t hungry.

Bottom line: Avoid arguing on an empty stomach, and broach touchy subjects during or after a meal, not before.

Brad Bushman, the lead author on the study, took the results to heart:

I’ve learned that I should eat a protein bar when I talk to my wife.

As with most things in life, timing is everything.

In the United States alone, more than 23 million adults sing in groups every week. Why? Because there’s a direct link between music and mood, so much so that there’s a whole branch of psychology devoted to music, appropriately called ‘music therapy.’

Originally, music therapy was developed BY WHOM as a way to help wounded World War II veterans cope with their pain. But the practice of music as a therapeutic activity has been around thousands of years. In the 500s BC, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras believed music was beneficial to the spirit.

But today, you don’t need to know your music theorems or the ancient history of music to appreciate the joys of a sing-along. Nor do you need to be a wounded soldier. While most relevant research in the past has focused on the ways choirs benefit the marginalized or criminal members of society, a new study in Australia looks at how positive the chorus experience can be for just about anybody.

You might not think of yourself as a performer, and in fact the very thought of singing in front of other people may fill you with terrible stage fright, but the study confirmed the benefits of singing with a group across a wide spectrum of positivity: better mood, influx of endorphins, increased feelings of communal value. The researchers work illustrates not just the power of music, but also the power of participation and active involvement.

There’s no excuse: sing along!