If you watch Love and Hip Hop, The Real HouseWives of (Atlanta,NJ,LI…etc) Mob Wives or are an avid reader of US Weekly, you will notice a major consistency with certain types of entertainment. Aside from bad acting, debt-incurring lavishness and unreasonable plots, that is.
Society’s favorite entertainers are surrounded by tabloid dramas that keep us reeled in through both our DVRs and social media. We love to know when and where Chris Brown is with Karrueche or Rihanna (er, both). The antics of Justin Beiber are always in the news and his popularity has never been higher. Even Miley Cyrus made calculated advancements in her career boosted by the VMAs stir she made over one year ago and has been reaping the benefits ever since. So what is it about the drama, the fighting, the bickering and uproar we can’t get enough of?
Do you know anyone who should have been an actor or actress when it comes to dramatic situation? I knew a friend of mine that seemed to go into a frenzy when she heard bad news. It was like she went on autopilot she would cry, scream and get overly excited. For some of us, it’s like a game to see her this way. Some people would incite drama around her just to see her reaction to it.
So why do audiences go for it?
One explanation to the thirst for drama is that our brains are still hardwired as hunter gatherers such as our ancestors were. This used to be a survival technique in which we needed a heightened sense of awareness to feel fear, and know about the dangers around such as other predators and animals. As you can tell we are no longer in a world where we need to be afraid for our lives at every turn, but our brain still seeks the thrill of the drama and the rush we get when we hear or see a danger. So now instead of fighting off Sabretooth Tigers we react to Maury Povich episodes or TI fighting Floyd over Tiny.
A recent article stated how many spectators’ brains are three times more likely to respond to the negative story than a positive one. So if you think these reality stars, rappers, entertainers are just having a string of bad days, then you’re wrong. While certain dramas can’t be staged, much of the negativity seen on TV is simply the entertainment business tapping into our most primordial senses — leading to more cameras, more press and another excitable trip to the bank.
