Since January 20, Temptation Island is back on W9. The opportunity for six couples to come and test the strength of their relationship on an island, by being in contact with “tempters”. But why do these betrayals fascinate us so much? How did infidelity, which is an intimate matter, become an attraction? Amélie Boukhobza, clinical psychologist, enlightens us.
A guilty fascination of voyeurism
If infidelity has always existed, it is transformed here into a spectacle.
“What changes today is its staging. The betrayal becomes a scenario. It is filmed, commented on, displayed… and works so much because there is some “crunchiness”: the viewer has the impression of entering the room, into the secrets, into the flaws of the candidates… and into the intimacy of their relationships.” analyzes the expert.
We look here through the bolt of a door; a bit like in the show Loft Story – the first reality TV show to have normalized voyeurism. Here, the public is no longer a simple spectator: it becomes the privileged witness of arguments, nocturnal rapprochements, tears and screams.
This is actually a classic human mechanism. “The forbidden attracts, the intimate presentation captivates“, assures Amélie Boukhobza.
A staging of an archaic fear
But that’s not all! Infidelity also touches on our most archaic anxieties: being replaced, being abandoned, no longer being the chosen one, losing one’s place… Very deep narcissistic questions arise: “Do I still count? Am I enough? Am I interchangeable?
“Television here pushes the concept even further. It installs temptation like a device. We test love like a product. We put desire under surveillance. We transform a flaw into performance”, recognizes the expert.
Everyone loves to judge, to hand out good and bad points…
The public also loves becoming the jury. Installed behind their screen, viewers analyze, decide, condemn or defend. On social networks as in everyday conversations, on distributes good and bad points.
“The good victim. The bad traitor. The manipulator. The coward… As if we needed to bring moral order to something which, in reality, is deeply ambivalent”, deciphers Amélie Boukhobza.
Classifying, labeling, judging allows us to simplify what we observe… and above all to reassure us. This reflex responds to a very human need: to make a situation legible which, in reality, is not. “Because infidelity is rarely as simple and binary as that… Behind a gesture or a betrayal, he There are often fragilities, conflicts, gaps and multiple issues”, concludes the psychologist.
Moreover, it is very possible that the relationships formed during the show explode once the cameras are turned off, as they are so artificial… and mean nothing about the human or the everyday.