Psychology suggests people who keep the TV on in an empty house aren't simply avoiding silence; familiar voices can provide a sense of social presence that helps reduce feelings of isolation

You walk into an empty apartment, drop your keys, and grab the remote before you even take off your shoes. The TV turns on some familiar show, perhaps one you’ve seen before, and suddenly the silence isn’t quite so loud. If this sounds like you, you are not alone. And what you’re doing, psychologists say, is not just a quirky habit. It may be one of the most quietly humane things you do all day.

In a landmark study, ‘Social surrogacy: How favored television programs provide the experience of belonging,’ published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers Jaye L. Derrick, Shira Gabriel, and Kurt Hugenberg found that people actively seek out their favorite TV shows when they are lonely and, in turn, feel measurably less alone while they are watching. They called this the “social surrogacy hypothesis”: the idea that television can serve as a kind of emotional surrogate when no real human relationships are available.