Only Fans – Der Trash-TV-Salon: Menschenkunde mit Poolzugang

Much has now been said about the relationship-wrecking men who act out their remarkable ideas of love, respect and interpersonal behaviour in the pool villas, container flats and summer houses of reality TV. Not least by themselves. But even these relationship wreckers cannot claim all the airtime for themselves forever. After all, the psychological case studies that reality TV provides us with are, fortunately, considerably more diverse than the ‘men we should have been warned about’ category.

Why do fleeting acquaintances turn into friendships for life within a matter of days, only to fail to survive three rounds of nominations? How is it that whole groups band together against individual people, even when no one can explain exactly what they’ve actually done wrong? Why do people find it so hard to admit that they’ve misjudged someone? And why, whilst watching, are they so convinced that they themselves would, of course, always act with confidence, fairness and complete impartiality?

Together with psychologist Dr Dinah Gutermuth, Anja Rützel explores the surprising insights that can be gleaned from what is supposedly the most undemanding of television genres.