Sister Golden Hair Surprise

MSN - News - 'Wife Swap' Breaks Down Barriers

I don't watch this show, but I thought this article was interesting because it mentioned the idea that if a University were to try to recreate a reality show as a psychological experiment, it would never be able to because of the potential for emotional harm to the subject, especially the shows that involve children. The rules governing psychological experimentation are so strict, and researchers have to consider the stress that subjects might feel, and provide counseling after the experiment is concluded if the subject may have suffered emotional distress. But reality shows? Not only might participants undergo tremendous emotional distress, but they also have to deal with the whole coutry forming judgements about them based not on the way they truly are, but on the way they are edited to seem by networks who are only interested in emphasizing conflict and mignifying flaws. Think of how every one you know just hated Omorosa...and after she left the show, she didn't get counseling, she got talk shows instead. So what's the difference? participants on reality shows apply to be there, and get paid when they are done, but experiment participants are also self-selecting and paid. Is it because we deem the motives of research participants to be pure while the motives of reality show participants to be such that they constitute "asking for it"? Do we feel that the publicity compensates for what may be a terrible experience? in the cases where there is a lot of emotional distress, the publicity undoubtedly makes it worse. It will be interesting to see in years to come if there is any fallout from these shows, any kind of post-traumatic stress disorder or anything like that. It would be interesting to see. I don't think the shows are terrible, but I think the difference between what is accaptable in a television context and what is accaptible in a research context is pretty striking.