LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Watching TV might not make you happy, but for some viewers it beats being alone.

Four new studies by the University at Buffalo and Miami University of Ohio found that watching TV can drive away feelings of loneliness and rejection. The studies are reported in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and suggest that watching TV provides viewers with the illusion that their social needs are being met.

“The research provides evidence for the ’social surrogacy hypothesis,’ which holds that humans can use technologies, like television, to provide the experience of belonging when no real belongingness has been experienced,” said one of the study’s authors, Shira Gabriel. “We also argue that other commonplace technologies such as movies, music or interactive video games, as well as television, can fulfill this need.”

The first study found that subjects felt less lonely when viewing their favorite TV shows. Study 2 found that subjects whose “belongingness needs were aroused” wrote longer essays about their favored TV programs. The third study found that thinking about favored TV programs buffered subjects against drops in self-esteem, increases in negative mood and feelings of rejection. And Study 4 found that subjects verbally expressed fewer feelings of loneliness after writing essays about their preferred TV programs.