Keeping Up With The Kardashians may make viewers cold-hearted towards poor, study suggests

Authored by telegraph.co.uk and submitted by heinderhead

Television shows which glamourise fame, luxury, and wealth accumulation such as Made in Chelsea or Keeping Up With The Kardashians, make viewers cold-hearted towards the poor, a new study suggests.

New research from the London School of Economics (LSE) found that even 60 seconds of exposure to materialistic media is enough to significantly increase anti-welfare sentiment.

Study author Dr Rodolfo Leyva of LSE’s Department of Media and Communications said: “Humans are inherently materialistic but also very social and communal.

“The way this is expressed depends on our culture. 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.

“This study can contribute to explanations for why the UK public’s support for welfare to aid the impoverished and unemployed has been decreasing.”

bluraycase on August 2nd, 2018 at 04:33 UTC »

I was at a friends house when she put this on.

The mom was talking about her ex husbands sex change, followed shortly by her wanting to shop, and there was a cutely edited shopping montage.

The only thing I got from all that was her shopping as a coping mechanism from the revelation that her husband was transgender.

This show seems pretty fucking depressing.

TooShiftyForYou on August 2nd, 2018 at 04:05 UTC »

Study author Dr Rodolfo Leyva of LSE’s Department of Media and Communications said: “Humans are inherently materialistic but also very social and communal."

“The way this is expressed depends on our culture. 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."

Sounds like this is probably a vicious cycle for regular Kardashian viewers.

wonder-maker on August 2nd, 2018 at 03:44 UTC »

Avoiding Keeping Up With The Kardashians may make viewers cold-hearted towards Kardashians, study also suggests