TV makes people ‘care less about the poor’
SHOWS that glamorise fame, luxury, and wealth accumulation such as Made in Chelsea or Keeping Up With The Kardashians, make viewers cold-hearted towards the poor, a study suggests.
Research from the London School of Economics (LSE) found that even 60 seconds of exposure to materialistic media is enough to significantly increase anti-welfare sentiment.
Dr Rodolfo Leyva, the study’s author, said: “Humans are inherently materialistic but also very social and communal. The way this is expressed depends on our culture.
“If there is more emphasis on materialism as a way to be happy, this makes us more inclined to be selfish and anti-social, and therefore unsympathetic to people less fortunate.”
For the research, 487 adults were shown four adverts for luxury products, four tabloid photos of celebrities with expensive goods, and four newspaper headlines of rags-to-riches stories. A control group was shown adverts about the London Underground, natural scenery and headlines about dinosaurs.
Both groups were then asked questions that measured their attitudes towards wealth, success, benefits, and impoverished people.
Results showed that even a small amount of exposure to materialistic media had a negative impact on support for welfare policies. Participants were also asked about viewing of nine television shows, such as The Apprentice, The X Factor, Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Made in Chelsea.
Results showed those who also regularly watched these kinds of shows were much more likely to hold “stronger materialistic and anti-welfare attitudes than lighter consumers of these shows.”
The research was published in Media Psycholog y.