Talk Show Tension Essay Research Paper Talk — страница 2

to use words like “cheating”, “sneaking” and “lying”. Jerry also phrases the question in such a way to evoke anger in his guests. He typically asks questions like, “Can you believe that your fianc e and your brother would go behind your back like that?” The question is framed in such a way that any answer given to it would evoke or intensify anger. A “no” answer increases the feeling of surprise and causes the guest to think to himself, “How could they do such a thing?” A “yes” answer could mean that the guest may have noticed something going on between his fianc e and brother before the show. Yet, it is more likely that the guest has fallen prey to hindsight bias. Hindsight bias is the inclination to remember things in a certain way based on

information obtained later. So, in this situation the guest, now knowing that his fianc e is cheating, will remember anything that seemed awkward in the weeks approaching the show. Although these moments may not have been very common, they will now stick out in the guest’s mind. The guest will tend to recreate many of his memories of the past few months based on this new information. He may interpret common events with no major emotional value as strong signs of his fianc e’s cheating. As he thinks about these memories, his anger towards the situation will increase greatly. Jerry is able to cause a great increase in the anger felt by the guest by framing the question in a certain way. Besides Jerry’s questions, though, many factors influence the emotional content of the

show. When a guest enters the stage, there are hundreds of people looking down chanting and cheering. When placed in such situations, in front of large crowds, people tend to feel nervous. Their heart rate, breathing rate and production of sweat all increase due to the reaction of the sympathetic nervous system. Based on the Schachter and Singer theory of emotion, this helps to explain why the emotions displayed in the shows are so intense. Schachter and Singer believed that the intensity of emotions are determined by the intensity of the physiological state, but the emotion itself is determined by the situation. As explained earlier, the situation that the guests are put in is definitely an angering situation. Therefore, when the guests are placed into the angering situation,

their sympathetic nervous system has already been aroused and the intensity of the anger is much stronger than it would have been otherwise. The participation of the audience, with shouts and cheers, tends to increase the intensity of the anger even more. So, these guests are manipulated psychologically to deal with difficult situations with even more anger than they would display normally. To make matters worse, when the guests try to fight they are torn apart by security guards. Yet, they have enough time to activate a fight response; their sympathetic nervous system is aroused greatly, releasing a great deal of adrenaline causing an even greater increase in heart rate and breathing rate. This intensifies their emotions in multiple ways. First of all, the physiological state is

further intensified, corresponding to even stronger emotions of anger. Yet, along with this, there seems to be a great deal of frustration evoked in the guest. Based on the frustration-aggression hypothesis, frustration causes aggression. In other words, failure to obtain something causes raised aggression. In the case of the guests, their failure to get revenge or resolve out of the issue causes an even greater feeling of outrage. All of these factors cause the guests on the Jerry Springer Show to elicit strong emotions of anger and violence. Although the talk show was created as a way for people to share their problems with society and try to resolve them in a group situation, now it has become simply a quest for more money. The Jerry Springer Show simply causes more anger and

disappointment in situations that are already very difficult for people to deal with. Many psychological influences affect the guests on talk shows into becoming much more angry than necessary. Rather than solving any of the problems discussed, shows like Jerry Springer tend to create a great deal of tension. Jerry is able to manipulate his guests into intense anger; since the general population would rather watch anger and violence, rather than peaceful resolve, the Jerry Springer Show is greatly benefiting from the strong psychological influences on the guests.