People who are serious about finding love should get rid of any DVDs in their home starring Hugh Grant, the results of a new study suggest.

Researchers from an Edinburgh university found that people who watch lots of romantic comedies begin to develop unrealistic expectations about love.

The team from the Family and Personal Relationships Laboratory at Heriot Watt University studied 40 box office hits from 1995 to 2005 including You've Got Mail, The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan and While You Were Sleeping.

They found that people who were avid fans of rom-coms were more likely to believe in the idea of predestined love.

Fans were consequently prone to believe that people fall in love instantly upon meeting instead of allowing feelings to grow over time.

They were also more likely to reject the notion of trying to work at a relationship and were poor at communicating with their partners.

This is because they believed that if someone is meant to be with you, they will know what you are feeling without you needing to tell them, just like on the silver screen.

Dr Bjarne Holmes, who led the research, commented: "It would be helpful if people were more aware and more critical of the messages in these films.

"The problem is that, while most of us know the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise."

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