Starting a weekend off with coffee, breakfast, and the third episode of one of your favorite shows that you have already seen three times sounds great. But, watching reruns stems from more than just no plans on a weekend or break.

The desire of viewers to watch reruns is one of the ways that television shows and movies make most of their money. Professor of Marketing, Cristel Russell, has found that this “re-consumption” results from a known outcome, which can even enhance with repetition or reveal details that previously went unnoticed. A viewer may see an expression on a character’s face that foreshadows actions already known.

This “re-consumption” can also serve as a way to measure how someone’s life has changed in a positive way. Watching a television series, a movie, or reading a book again gives a person time to reflect on the changes his or her life has seen. A person can see how life has changed from the first time he or she watched the Harry Potter series to the most recent time. It also causes nostalgia, where it is nice to watch something solely because it is something familiar from the past.

Watching re-runs can also be a reaction to a stressful time, a time when life has many unknowns, which can cause anxiety. When getting ready to start college, a high school graduate may watch an old favorite series to relax and prepare for the unknowns. A high school student may begin to read a book again as an important test, like SATs, or college deadlines approach.

This idea of “re-consumption” even applies to musics, as researchers estimate that for every hour a person listens to music, 54 of those minutes is spent listening to a song already heard. Knowing the end can also serve similar to “emotional regulation”. By re-consuming, we know the ending and how we will feel when they end. If re-watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, (spoiler alert) a viewer will be prepared for Dumbledore’s death and the emotions that come with it.

While some viewers may watch a movie or read a book again because they really did enjoy that movie, most do it for more than just that- nostalgia and “re-consumption” can also just be that people want to remember the past because it is the past. It is nice to look back and reflect on how life has changed since the last time.

During your free time, you do not necessarily decide to re-watch one of your favorite movies to reflect on your past and the changes in your life, but that does play a large part. So next time you “re-consume” think of why you are doing it and if it helps in the end.