MATERIAL GIRLS

Reality is, they’re making us heartless

Surprise! Watching the Kardashian sisters shop and bicker on TV isn’t making you a better person.

Reality-TV shows that glamorize luxury and fame — such as “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “The Apprentice” — turn viewers into coldhearted people with no empathy for the poor, suggests a study from re- searchers at the London School of Economics.

“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,” study author Dr. Rodolfo Levya told the Telegraph UK.

Even 60 seconds of the vapid materialism is enough to change people’s es- teem of those who are less fortunate than they are, the researchers found.

For the study, 487 adults ages 18 to 49 were asked about nine TV shows, including BBC’s “The Apprentice,” “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” “X-Factor” and the British reality show “Made in Chelsea.”

People who regularly watched the shows were more likely to have “stronger materialistic and anti-wel- fare attitudes” than those who didn’t watch as much, according to the study, published in the latest issue of the journal Media Psychology.

“Programs like ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘The X Factor’ are engineered to absorb audiences into the world of wealth and celebrities so act as ‘cultivators’ of materialistic values and attitudes,” Levya told The Times UK.