All you rom-com lovers will appreciate this new study that concluded that the romantic comedies don't actually cause you to have unrealistic expectations about love. So you can now continue your rom-com binge without feeling guilty.

The study surveyed 335 students at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The researchers found that there was not a strong relationship between believing in "soul mates," "love at first sight" and the idea that "love conquers all" and watching romantic comedies. "These findings discredit the popular assumption that exposure to romantic comedies is a major source leading to unrealistic relational expectations among young people," Veronica Hefner told ScienceDaily.

These results also contradict the conclusions of a 2008 study from the University of Edinburgh, which found that fans of classic rom-coms were less effective at communicating their wants and needs to their romantic partners. But this may have less to do with exposure to the narratives of romantic comedies and more to do with the reason people watch movies in this genre in the first place. Hefner and her team found that there was a correlation between people who viewed rom-coms in order to glean information about relationships and the tendency to idealize romance and one's romantic partners, reported ScienceDaily.

So basically, don't go looking for realistic lessons on love from fictional rom-coms. But if you want to indulge in warm fuzzy feelings of hope, then go for it!