What we have here is your basic chicken-egg situation – are you a narcissistic, self-absorbed monster because you love reality TV, or do you love reality TV because you’re a narcissistic, self-absorbed monster?
Either way, a study led by a group of Ohio State University researchers has found that a preference for reality-based programming makes you vain and entitled and gives you a heightened sense of your own self-importance.
Long story short, filling your days with The Bachelor, The Real Housewives and sundry Kardashians makes you a total Janet:
The study asked a group of 565 college students, with an average age of 20, to keep track of the genres of programs that they watched, from sports to news and current affairs to reality.
They were then asked questions about the overall amount of TV they watched, and answered quiz questions to rate themselves on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.
FWIW, traits of a narcissistic personality include:
“… grandiose sense of self-importance, sense of entitlement and uniqueness, lack of empathy, tendency to exploit others and a strong preoccupation with fame and success.”
The study found that “those who reported higher levels of daily TV exposure scored higher on the [Narcissistic Personality Inventory], as did those who watched more reality shows.”
Again with the chicken-egg scenario, lead researcher Ted Dickinson pointed out that:
“… some people with narcissistic tendencies are seeking out media characters similar to themselves, whereas others who watch reality TV see narcissism as normalized behavior and begin acting more narcissistic.”
He also said that the results could be skewed by the fact that the average participant was 20, and an older control group might produce a different set of results, as “older people tend to be less narcissistic than young people.” Burn.
BTW, a preference for news programming relates negatively to narcissism, because people who connect with the news are “more civically engaged and less individualistic”, so you can go ahead and feel smug about that if you wish.
Source: Daily Mail.
