All the gossip, insults and dirty looks add up fast on popular reality shows, far outpacing the level seen in equally popular dramas, comedies and soap operas according to a new Brigham Young University study.
The researchers looked at five reality shows and five non-reality shows and found 52 acts of aggression per hour on reality TV compared to 33 per hour for the non-reality programs.
“The Apprentice” topped the list at 85 acts of verbal or relational aggression per hour.
Simon Cowell and “American Idol” checked in a little lower at 57 aggressive acts per hour – but then again, backbiting is tough to do while singing.
“I knew the level of aggression was going to be high, but I had no idea it was going to be this high,” said Sarah Coyne, a BYU professor of family life and lead author of the study. Coyne’s findings will appear in the June issue of The Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.
The researchers analyzed 120 hours of programming and coded every instance of physical, verbal and relational aggression. The 10 shows selected for the study are popular with audiences in Britain, although several shows are American productions.
And despite the “reality” label, half of the aggression appeared to be incited by producers. One common tactic is to put participants in a booth and bait them into saying something nasty about their competitors.
What’s the big deal?
Numerous other studies, including one by Coyne, demonstrate that meanness rubs off on viewers. And that was using very contrived and clearly fictional scenes.
“Of any type of program out there, I would think that reality programs are the most likely to be imitated,” Coyne said. “All audiences think it won’t affect them, but we aren’t as immune as we think we are.”
November 2009 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology brings Brigham Young University professor Sarah Coyne and colleagues back to topic. The asked 53 British college-aged women to watch one of three video clips:
- physical aggression (a knife fight from Kill Bill),
- relational aggression (a montage from Mean Girls) or
- no aggression (a séance scene from the horror movie What Lies Beneath).
The women filled out a brief questionnaire and were allowed to leave the room. Right outside was another researcher who asked if they would like to participate in a study involving reaction times.
Once the women agreed to take part, the researcher behaved rudely, telling them to hurry. When they showed uneasiness, she said, “Great! This is really going to screw things up!”
The researcher left the room, and the subjects took two tests that are commonly used to test aggression.
Results
- Subjects who viewed the Kill Bill and the Mean Girls clips reacted in similarly aggressive ways. Prompted to subject the rude researcher to a sharp noise by pushing a button, they turned up the noise louder than a control group. They also gave lower scores than the control group on an evaluation form that supposedly was going to be used to decide whether the researcher should be hired.
Coyne says the findings suggest parents should pay more attention to relational aggression and perhaps even push to make it part of movie and TV ratings. “Everyone’s concerned about violence in the media, as they should be, but we’re missing out on lots of violence out there,” she says. “We need to look at these other types of aggression out there because we know that they’re having an effect on aggression.”
Final Thoughts
The reality show “Over the Rainbow” goal is to find the next Dorothy for the West End’s “Wizard of Oz” is considered tame by all standards. But there is aggressiveness and public humiliation.
- Every week the dwindling possible ‘Dorothys’ are asked “Who do you think isn’t Dorothy?” — which you can has been edited for the sake of an answer.
- The panel tear down the girls with critical evaluations, which would never happen in any audition – ever.
- The panel is also forced to answer “Who do you think isn’t Dorothy?” – and with each response you can hear a heart fiber pulled and ripped apart when the specific woman’s name is announced.
The problem with even something tame as finding a musical lead . . . the editing, writers and participants must be part of something that isn’t reality. No person would be criticized in any audition or have a panel to judge you immediately. That is for the classroom, not television. It is is neither reality or a reflection of “show business”. This is not a peek into what happens behinds closed doors.
What is reality? When there is no editing room, writers involved, controlled environment or prize incentive. The truth of the matter . . . reality is quite boring, it is about paying bills, grocery shopping and for some hiding behind a keyboard. We are all a stage. We are all living reality. Everything else . . . just cameras and dry ice.