I don’t think reality tv is so much a skinner box as it is simply a reflection of what people find entertaining. It’s mindless stimulation. It doesn’t require any real thought or consideration to enjoy. It’s like Jackass. I think this is appealing to people because it’s become so difficult (i.e. it takes so much effort) for most people to exert any sort of mental energy to assess virtually anything…or for that matter enjoy something that isn’t basically slapstick. (I think Neil Tokar offers an excellent theory as to why this is in his recent Mises Daily.)
I think this is why you can so often hear someone say “you’re too serious” anytime a conversation gets deeper than the weather. I think it’s too taxing for people of low thinking skill and low information to engage in activity that requires even a minimal amount of those things. In other words, things like reality TV and Michael Bay films have evolved out of a desire to be entertained, and an inability to be engaged in—let alone entertained by—anything much more than appeals to basic primal instincts…namely sex and violence. And fart jokes. Even a small amount of thinking is so difficult and/or exhausting, that people who work all day don’t have any interest in doing it…because few people are interested in doing more work in their discretionary time. (And of course people who don’t work tend to not have the skill or the ability to do enough thinking to hold down a job…so of course they aren’t going to be doing it).
So what you end up with is a largely ill-infomed, uninterested populous…or in other words, a “don’t know, don’t care” society. It’s far easier to be told what to believe than to have to think for yourself…especially when you aren’t very good at thinking to begin with. I think this is why you see such an extreme gullibility and willingness to believe the easiest, least complicated story. I also think people are uncomfortable talking about things they don’t believe they know much about. And if you combine that inability to think critically with the discomfort of feeling ill-informed, you start to understand why it’s so easy for people to buy into obvious nonsense…whether it’s the notion that spending money gets you out of debt, or that a jumbo jet and all it’s passengers can disintegrate after crashing into a field, leaving literally no trace of man or machine…aside from a bandana, three driver’s ID cards and a hotel card…all completely intact.
And ironically, after being enticed (and possibly even having a need) to believe whatever an authority says, it seems people actually begin to believe they do know what they are talking about, and feel the need to not only loudly defend the “official” assessment, but also to attack those that question it.