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Do This Tonight. You'll Get in the Mood

If you really want to get in the mood, watch a movie.

It turns out that movies boost our hormone levels. Depending on the content of the movie, it can make you feel more romantic or even more aggressive, report Reuters and Science Daily of research from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Sentimental movies, such as "The Bridges of Madison County," can make the hormone progesterone rise by more than 10 percent in both men and women. Progesterone is known to reduce anxiety and may help people be more attentive and romantic. In this particular chick-flick, the male hormone testosterone was actually suppressed. During and after this film that tells the story of a passionate, but doomed, illicit love affair, women's testosterone levels were unchanged, while men's testosterone levels actually fell.

Violent action movies have another kind of effect with men and women reacting quite differently. "The Godfather, Part II" caused men's testosterone levels to surge by as much as 30 percent or more and dampened their feelings of attentiveness. Higher testosterone levels can help muscle growth, enhance libido, and prime people for more assertive, dominant behavior, including aggression. Interestingly, when women who naturally had high testosterone levels watched the young Vito Corleone acquire and consolidate power after killing a hated foe, those testosterone levels plummeted. Women who naturally had low testosterone levels were visibly uncomfortable watching the movie.

As a control group, men and women viewed a documentary about the Amazon rainforest, and hormone levels in both genders were unaffected.

"When you're watching movies, your hormones are responding, not just your mind," Oliver Schultheiss, a psychology professor who led the study, said in a news release announcing the study. "This also helps explain why certain people like to go to certain types of movies. Affiliation-motivated people like to see romantic flicks. But power-motivated people prefer movies with more action and violence. If you want to learn about someone's personality, look at their video collection."

So what's the best date movie for a couple? "They should definitely see the romantic movie, and if the guy is high-testosterone, he should just clench his teeth and in exchange, it will help promote the relationship," Schultheiss wisely said.

The study findings were published in the journal Hormones and Behavior.