Skip to content
Culture & Religion —

Guiding Lights

Recent research suggests that people all over the world might be modeling themselves after characters on soap operas—and that their lives are improved as a result.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Recent research suggests that, all over the world, many people might be modeling themselves after characters on soap operas—and that it’s a good thing that they are. “Soaps, it turns out, are shaping behavior in ways that are subtle, profound and, from the standpoint of global development experts, positive,” writes Drake Bennett. “A team of economists credits Brazilian TV “novelas” for helping to dramatically lower a fertility rate that in 1960 was above six births per woman. Others have found that in India—where soaps dominate the airwaves—villages where people watch more TV give more responsibilities and rights to women and girls. … And research in the United States has found that health tips tucked into soaps have greater sticking power than with just about any other mode of transmission.”

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next
Surprising Science
Group Think
Group theory “bridges the arts and sciences,” writes Steven Strogatz. “It addresses something the two cultures share—an abiding fascination with symmetry.”