Moral reactions to reality TV: Television viewers’ endogenous and exogenous loci of morality

Abstract

Drawing upon a survey and 41 semi-structured interviews with television consumers, we examine the negative moral reactions that some people have to contemporary reality television. We explore the relationship between cultural preferences and moral condemnation. Television consumers who have a moral reaction to reality TV are more likely to be from a higher socio-economic position and are less likely to consume the genre. To more fully understand some viewers’ negative moral reactions to reality television, we examine the moral reasoning of television consumers. Moral reactions to reality TV can be classified as endogenous and exogenous. An endogenous focus is concerned with the immorality of consumption. An exogenous focus locates morality in cultural production. These moral positions are also socially patterned; television consumers with an exogenous locus of morality possess higher levels of cultural capital, greater education and are less likely to consume reality TV. Theoretically, we contend that cultural taste is being turned into moral condemnation. In other words, when cultural consumption is linked to moral position then a strong symbolic boundary can be formed that reinforces real-world boundaries amongst social groups. This condemnation serves to harden cultural, symbolic boundaries rooted in classed consumption practices.