Money is also an aphrodisiac for contestants in Beauty and the Geek and Love Island Australia, boasting a $100,000 prize for the winners. Isn’t love the ultimate prize? Is the show’s incentive the money, the fame, or the relationship?

The costumes enhance the contestants’ competitive edge: youth, thinness, muscles, extensions, heavy make-up, veneers, fake tans. It’s the real-life version of Chad and Stacy, the alphas. The characters are presented to amplify stereotypes in simplistic world views.

Despite Beauty and the Geek only adopting the bimbo stereotype, the geek character is just as contrived as the Chad. The men are cute and there’s nothing wrong with them other than low confidence. They have strong passions in trains, karate and Harry Potter, and dress relatively well. The show manages to entertain its viewers without poking too much fun at the contestants. It creates a stereotypical social scenario but challenges the idea that awkward nerds can’t land the beauty (they just need to alter their appearance and personality). It’s not unreasonable to believe the couples could last, but logic disagrees.

If these shows were truly designed to build healthy relationships, why are the contestants from different states? At least in Love Is Blind they’re all from the same city. In Beauty and the Geek, Tara and Michael form a connection, but they live nowhere near each other.

Another aspect of dating shows is performance. The Hawthorne effect shows that human behaviour changes under observation. So, how can we expect people will form authentic connections when they’re altering their behaviour to appeal to the audience?

Any couples who last the course in reality television are merely the outlier, not the standard. Why have we all fooled ourselves into believing these shows fast-track love? When you watch dating shows through the lens of competition alone, it becomes a lot cuter when the relationships succeed. Contestants go through such a bizarre and unique experience during and after filming. It makes sense they would share mutual understanding which could lead to a long-term relationship.

Very few aspects of dating shows are authentic except for illuminating the desire to mate and acquire wealth. So, why do we impart moral values onto it and expect true love to conquer all?

Beauty and the Geek Australia is on Nine, Sunday, 7pm, Monday-Wednesday, 7.30pm.

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