“Sie bleiben überhaupt gern unter sich.”

Question

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?

Answer 1

"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.