Mimicking NT behaviour on Big Brother show

[NinaB]

Hi there,

Here where i live, that show is HUGE. Everybody watches it and children grow up watching it.

I always cringed, when i accidentaly put it on tv while changing channels, where people would pick up fights for seemingly miserable reasons or falling in love so quickly and pretending to take that relationship seriously. Always thought it was all staged in order to bring in the audience.

But now i just had an epiphany while researching workplace bullying and i realized that people act like they were in a real life big brother, especially with backstabbing and passive-agression. I think they are emulating those behaviors that they used to see on tv, i even remember kids at school would talk about that show all the time and i didn't understand the thrill. Turns out people on that show are not really just acting out, as i previously thought.

Do you think it's worth it to watch those kind of reality shows with the intention of learning how to mimic NT behavior (i mean the decent behaviors of course, and also how to defend myself from the nasty ones) or is it still too fake?

I ask this because i intend to have a job one day, and being myself didn't help much through all these years.

 

[Judge]

Let's just say that I consider "Big Brother" essentially a "laboratory" for NT behavior. Though I wouldn't take it too literally in terms of practical situations in real life. After all, BB is more of a "worst case scenario".

Though I also recognize that on occasion, predatory working environments can be much the same.

I believe the show is deliberately orchestrated by their producers to bring out the worst in people, which happens more often than not. With a complex and secret selection process involving a promotion of predators versus their potential victims. Something I once discussed at length online with Nicole Nilson (runner-up, season two) several years ago.

As a game, IMO it's not for the faint of heart- or kind at heart.

"It's just a game! Don't take it personally! Oh my.

 

[Bolletje]

I personally wouldn’t use it to study NT behavior, as it’s all very much orchestrated and edited to create maximum drama. This is not what normal interactions are like.

 

[Judge]

I personally wouldn’t use it to study NT behavior, as it’s all very much orchestrated and edited to create maximum drama. This is not what normal interactions are like.

To a degree I agree. Where it's all crafted to be social "pressure-cooker". Designed for most contestants to fail badly. Way more drama than the average person sustains daily over time. Point taken. However, the scenario does draw some serious parallels in working long term in a corporate environment where competition is fostered at the expense of social and working relationships. Where employee interactions can get really ugly in some cases. Some people just don't handle competition well at all. Though one must still be productive as opposed to Big Brother which boils down to winning prize money.

I still recall the very first season of the US version of this show. It had not real competitive events and merely relied on social dynamics to propel the show. I was amazed that they carried the show another season, but at that point it all changed dramatically and became much more interesting in terms of what we see today.

Though I've suspected for a long time that competitive events are often orchestrated to a point where a specific houseguest at a specific point in time has the opportunity to excel in a particular event as opposed to one who may be superior intellectually or athletically. In essence, at least in the US version IMO there are few occurrences that amount to a truly random event.

Though I'm always amused to recall how Derek Levasseur went on to win Big Brother a few seasons back. He arguably played the best game of all time, (better than Dr. Will Kirby) remaining distanced from the fray while deceiving most everyone he came into contact with. His real occupation? Undercover police officer.

 

[Katleya]

Hmm. I have to say over the last year and a half, I've watched similar shows and drew the same comparisons than you have regarding how much it mimicked the behavior of people on the outside world.
That being said, I still think it's very much scripted, and what is not scripted is the result of either editing and/or heavy prompts by the production. They will create drama and start stuff just because that's what a lot of viewers seem to want; it's what creates a buzz, and increases the number of viewers or clicks, which means more money for any ads they might have running. Simple as that. Whatever is indeed scripted is done so in accordance with a bunch of tropes in mind that matches, again, the low expectations placed on the audience.

So it's a great thing to study if you take it with a grain of salt, and consider that it's really a caricature of the most extremes forms of behavior. And even then: not really the average person's behavior, even NTs, because not everybody is hungry for fame and drama. I do 100% agree with you that a lot of kids, teens and adults are mimicking what they see on TV, because it's normalized behavior by now, but there were people like that before all those shows came about. They simply weren't given a platform and didn't act as rolemodels back then.

TL;DR: keep on watching to see things you need to be careful about, but please do not start acting like them

 

[DesertRose]

Everything in front of a camera is scripted. Those folks are looking for their 15 minutes of fame, and thus premeditated how they would act and respond to given situations.
Unless the footage is taken illegally, its well thought out, but then again, that would be in public, so that even could be scripted because they realize they are in public....nah, I don't believe anything I see on TV.

 

[Mary Anne]

Completely scripted, just like Jerry Springer. Everything goes through rehearsals before any cameras come on stage.

 

[Judge]

Completely scripted, just like Jerry Springer. Everything goes through rehearsals before any cameras come on stage.

Not possible. You forgot that CBS All Access members can observe the houseguests on a nearly 24/7 basis. I still recall the first season when it was free and I was watching them on my broadband connection at work...lol.

Though at select times the cameras go off when production members interact with the houseguests.

Scripted? No. At least not in an outright sense. Orchestrated? Yes. Very much so.

 

[Mary Anne]

Not possible. You forgot that CBS All Access members can observe the houseguests on a nearly 24/7 basis.

Though at select times the cameras go off when production members interact with the houseguests.

Did not know that. I find “reality tv” to be fake as hell, and watched it only once. I don’t believe that they do not edit parts out.
I live tv free now and love the peace and quiet.

 

[Judge]

Did not know that. I find “reality tv” to be fake as hell, and watched it only once. I don’t believe that they do not edit parts out.
I live tv free now and love the peace and quiet.

Nope, what they say and do is about 95% open to public scrutiny. It's why there were some serious issues when some of the houseguests made racially charged comments just a few weeks back. The production and the network were not amused. Amazing how some people completely lack any discretion, even when they know millions of people may be watching them in real time.

Also you can watch them at no charge on a limited basis very late at night on the POP network, though it's entirely possible that particular display is edited to some extent. But in watching them in the off hours you really get a feel for who these people are, somewhat different than in the hourly shows you see each week.

-Not pretty.

 

[WildCat]

These reality shows, soap operas, sitcoms, whatever you want to include here...it's all designed for mass consumption, ratings and profits. The people in charge do everything they can in their power to reel all of this in, and given all the competition they really don't have much of a choice.

Please don't mimic what you see on TV. If you want to learn behavior, immerse yourself in real-life and go from there. Leave that other stuff to the "professionals".