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Who else loves a little low-stakes escapism?
Diving into a cozy romance book is literally the equivalent of putting on your comfiest socks, pressing play on your favorite comfort show (ahem, Gilmore Girls), or taking a sip of warm tea. It’s soothing, the plot doesn’t involve high stakes, and you can rest assured that it has a happy ending. So, besides being simply a delightful read, why is everyone swooning over the cozy romance genre right now? To get to the heart of our collective obsession with the genre, we asked psychology experts to share what they’re seeing in our culture right now and how the cozy romance genre is playing a part.
Meet Our Expert
- Dakari Quimby, PhD, MA, clinical advisor at The Lakes Behavioral Health
- Carolina Estevez, PsyD, psychologist at Soba, a treatment center in New Jersey
- Amy Bishop, licensed marriage and family therapist and owner ofSprings Therapy
Why Is Cozy Romance Having a Moment?
It’s no wonder that we’re all yearning for a cozy romance read right now: With doomscrolling taking over our lives—consuming one negative headline after the next—and a general uptick in feelings of anxiety, we’re all looking for a little comfort and escape.
“Many people experience excessive amounts of stress and social fatigue due to their lives being filled with a continuous stream of bad news,” says Dakari Quimby, PhD, MA, clinical advisor at The Lakes Behavioral Health. “In contrast, cozy romances provide the reader with a sense of emotional safety, as these stories allow the reader to expect a form of connectivity, kindness, and closure. On a psychological level, these predictable storylines are able to regulate the reader’s nervous system in a way that endless bad news and constant social and political conflict found online cannot.”
Quimby also thinks the popularity of the genre may be a signal that people are craving (and hold more value in) the traits we see in cozy romance. “The draw to cozy romance indicates that emotional warmth, community, and dependability of others have an increased value in our current world, especially at a time when so much of society feels unstable and unpredictable,” he says.
Our culture, he notes, may also be wanting some emotional rest after years of consuming media that emphasize traumatic events and political unrest (i.e., The Hunger Games franchise, Marvel movies, Fast & Furious series, and the whole dystopian sci-fi craze of the mid to late 2010s).
“Cozy romances give readers permission to find pleasure in tender moments and emotions without needing to prepare themselves for the possibility of disasters,” Quimby says. “It doesn’t mean readers are turning away from current reality issues; rather, it means they want to read stories that contain optimism.”
What Can We Learn From the Cozy Romance Genre?
The biggest takeaway here may be that we all need to stop scrolling and instead take meaningful breaks that actually help us recharge. With social media constantly keeping us in fight-or-flight mode, cozy romance is a metaphorical retreat that helps us relax and refresh. Reading it can literally be therapeutic, according to Carolina Estevez, PsyD, psychologist at Soba, a treatment center in New Jersey.
“Cozy romance works as a vehicle to create a relaxing atmosphere so that when you read cozy romance, you don’t have to be on alert like you would in other types of fiction,” she says. “From a psychological standpoint, I believe that there is a therapeutic element to reading about warm, accepting environments; friendships that develop out of safe environments, and relationship dynamics that are based on emotional safety versus drama.”
It also naturally reduces our anxiety, thanks to oxytocin. “Getting lost in cozy romance and connecting to the characters can release oxytocin, often called the cuddling hormone, and oxytocin has natural anxiety-reducing effects,” says Amy Bishop, licensed marriage and family therapist and owner of Springs Therapy.
The bottom line? We are not meant to spend hours of our days scrolling through negative headlines and feeling anxious: It’s totally possible to stay aware of what’s going on and passionately fight injustice without spending all of our mental time and energy there. Instead, try setting a time limit on your apps, so you don’t get caught up in a never-ending negative scroll. And in the meantime, pick up a cozy little romance book.
Cozy Romance Books to Pick Up This Weekend
If you don’t know where to start on your journey to embrace cozy romance, give these editor-approved picks a try.
- When in Rome by Sarah Adams
- The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore
- Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
- Book Lovers by Emily Henry
- First Time Caller by B.K. Borison
- If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia
- Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree
Read the original article on Real Simple
