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Three Snapshots of TV’s Power to Change Us

Media can impact culture in surprising ways. And I came across three stories recently that illustrate how television, in particular, informs and influences the way we see the world and interact with it.

First, there’s the case of TV finales and the stock market. Would you think that there’s a correlation between the two? Turns out there just might be, says Gabriel Lepori, an economist at Keele University in the United Kingdom. Lepori looked at what happens to stock markets after a beloved television show bids adieu. Specifically, he analyzed the market’s responses the day after 150 television series finales dating as far back as The Fugitive’s conclusion in August 1967.

Summarizing his findings, Lepori told National Public Radio, “What I find is that when a TV show ends, I observe a decrease in stock returns on the following trading day. The higher the number of TV viewers for that episode, the larger the decrease in stock returns on the following day.” Regarding that correlation’s cause, Lepori speculated, “Since we see [TV characters] every week, we tend to develop an emotional attachment with them. So that when we lose them because, say, a TV show ends, we tend to experience a negative emotional reaction that is similar to the reaction we would experience when a real relationship ends.”

And what does that have to do with high finance, you ask? Well, when you’re in mourning, you’re not always so keen on making big investments or taking new risks. And if such feelings are widespread enough, the whole system tips just a bit.

Elsewhere, the Gallup organization recently examined why Americans tend to overestimate the gay population.

On average, Americans think the gay proportion of the United States is about 23%, according to a Gallup poll. In reality, Gallup says that just 3.8% of adults in America actually identify themselves as LGBT, according to the organization’s Gallup Daily tracking research in the first four months of 2015.

So what accounts for the disparity between the actual percentage of LGBTs and the perceived percentage? One potential factor, Gallup suggests, is television’s portrayals of gay characters. Says the study’s conductors, “The overestimation may also reflect prominent media portrayals of gay characters on television and in movies, even as far back as 2002, and perhaps the high visibility of activists who have pushed gay causes, particularly legalizing same-sex marriage.”

Finally, there’s this story from Waco, Texas, a community still reeling from a deadly shootout involving rival motorcycle gangs at a local restaurant. It was a melee that claimed nine lives, injured 18 and resulted in the arrest of 170.

According to some law enforcement officials there, many people—including other police officers—wrongly try to downplay the dangers such gangs pose today. And they believe that’s due in part to the influence of television. “They watch their Sons of Anarchy and their little television shows,” says Steve Cook, a police officer in Kansas City. “These guys all seem likable enough: that they are misunderstood, outlaws from the old days, and they ride motorcycles instead of horses. Even cops think, ‘Oh, they are just tattooed, long-haired guys who like to ride motorcycles.’ And the reality of it is they are long-haired tattooed guys who ride motorcycles and sell a h— of a lot of methamphetamine and murder people and steal motorcycles and extort people and beat people up in bars for no reason.”

These three stories remind us, in very different ways, that what we watch on TV really does have the power to shape and mold our perception of the real world. And sometimes the TV-influenced perspectives we adopt don’t jibe very well with what’s actually happening there.