Reality shows meaner than fiction

[darksumomo]

Science Daily: Meaner Than Fiction: Reality TV High on Aggression, Study ShowsScienceDaily (May 22, 2010) - 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

Comments

[romantic_india]

Agreed. I am still perplexed as to why people like to watch things that are that negative.

[alphawox]

I'd like to see what non-reality shows they tracked, just as a comparison.

I don't watch American Idol, Survivor, Apprentice, or any of those type of shows. Now if they put on Survivor: Antarctica in July or Survivor: Siberia in January... well, I'd watch that, where some surviving would be necessary :)

[godix]

I wish they would mention WHICH 5 reality and non-reality shows they looked at. It'd also be kinda of nice to know what 'physical, verbal, and relational aggression' actually means. I've seen Parents Television Council produce studies like this before where they used methods like presenting the harshest shows they could find as 'typical reality TV programs', compared those to non-reality programs like re-runs of Touched by an Angel or other similarly sanitized shows, and defined various forms of bad conduct so broadly that they were practically meaningless. I won't try defending reality TV, there's no question it does suck. Which actually is all the more reason to look at the study carefully before buying into it, I want it to be try so have to watch out I'm being biased in backing things that support my pre-made conclusion

[biting_moopie]

IAWTC.

[claire_chan]

Hear, hear!

[gmonkey42]

Yep. That is not at all surprising. That's why reality shows are upsetting for me, I can't watch them much or I start to get all depressed.