Stanford Prison Experiment Alive and Well in Reality TV

About a week ago, I returned from a two-week vacation in New Zealand.  Whilst there, I watched an episode of MasterChef: New Zealand.  The next day, I saw an episode of MasterChef: USA.  I had never seen either before.  The difference between the two was stunning and so enormous that I actually plan to watch one again often and plan to avoid the other like the plague.  The reason why?  For the answer, we can look to the Stanford Prison Experiment.

There are plenty of books to read on the experiment, if you’re interested, and it’s part of every major psychology text book.  You can also read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

In short: twenty-four male students were chosen at random to take part in the experiment.  Half of them were assigned to be prison guards, half were prison inmates.  All were normal people.  The point of the experiment was to see how fully and quickly the participants adapted and changed to fit their roles.  From the wiki article:

 “The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Zimbardo's expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture.  Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it.  The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue.”

In many ways, people tend to act how they’re treated as if they act.  And nowhere, for me, was this more clear than watching the two episodes of MasterChef. 

MasterChef New Zealand: the judges treat the contestants firmly but with respect and as adults with worth and skill.  In return, the contestants respect the judges and treat them as an adult student in a university would treat an admired professor.  They treat their fellow contestants with respect and friendship. 

MasterChef USA: the judges act like abusive parents, constantly belittling and publically humiliating the contestants and otherwise psychologically torturing them for fun.  In return, the contestants act like abused children, crying and apologizing and groveling cringing for the slightest mistake.  The very few who don’t grovel enough are further abused by the judges and given further hurtles to overcome when not outright and unfairly pushed out of the competition.  These contestants regularly scorn and backstab their fellow contestants and are constantly nasty and abusive. 

Is this what television thinks American audiences want?  I can hardly express how deeply ashamed I am to have Kiwis and the rest of the world think of us like that.