Do Commercials Make TV Shows More Enjoyable?

I thought the answer to the question was absolutely "no" until I read this article on the New York Times this week. The two studies reported in the article find that "commercials make TV programs more enjoyable to watch. Even bad commercials." I'm not totally convinced by their argument but have to admit that it could make sense in some cases. The case coming to my mind immediately is a serial radio drama I loved to listen to when I was a kid. Broadcast each day for 30 minutes, the drama was the biggest reason for my dashing home during the lunch break in order not to miss any bits of new development in the drama. The 23.5 hours of waiting for each new episode definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the drama.

According to the studies' researchers, their findings suggest that oftentimes we human beings don't really know what makes us happy.