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What is the difference between the following two sentences?
Die Meiers bleiben sehr gern unter sich.
Die Meiers bleiben überhaupt sehr gern unter sich.
I know that both mean something like
The Meiers [very much] like to keep to themselves.
I just can't figure out what the überhaupt contributes here. In other words, why/how would the second German sentence above fall short? Why would the speaker feel compelled to insert the überhaupt?
"Überhaupt" here indicates that the statement is a generalization.
A possible example with some more context is:
Die Meiers nehmen nicht am gemeinsamen Abendessen teil. Sie bleiben überhaupt gern unter sich.
Here a possible translation could be "generally". So the above example translates to:
The Meiers don't participate in the joint dinner. They generally prefer to stay among themselves.
