The MasterChef series is one of the few reality shows whose popularity has transcended international borders. Interestingly, MasterChef Australia and MasterChef US, two most popular editions of this show, continue to stand in absolute contrast with one another.
Studies have found a positive relationship between reality TV shows in America and voyeuristic preferences of the audience. Thus, consumers of such content gain pleasure from viewing participants in dramatic situations which may involve confrontations and/or strategy. With specific focus on the culinary world, shows such as MasterChef US and Hell’s Kitchen, accurately represent cut-throat attitudes within American reality TV.
In MasterChef US, team challenges are extremely important to perceive individual capabilities within the kitchen. These situations are generally set in picturesque locations, where participants divided into two teams, are required to prepare a couple of 100 portions of a three-course meal, within a given time limit. The drama in MasterChef US is the most evident during high pressure situations such as team challenges. The group performances have had a consistent recipe - negative communication, blaming, and evading responsibility (team leaders, specifically).
For example, In Season 2, Esther Kang - the team leader, in one such task, evaded the responsibility of the team’s failure, when asked to identify the ‘weakest link’ of the group. Esther justified her choices (Christine Collins and Max Kramer) by saying, “they led me to believe that they could’ve gotten this done”, and “even though I was the leader, I don’t think it was my fault”. In Season 3, a “power struggle” was observed between Joshua “Josh” Marks and Mairym “Monti” Carlo, with other team members stating that they “could just see the entire team dynamic crumbling and falling apart.” In the same episode, participants blame Monti for the team loss - “Monti is to blame for us losing this challenge and I’ll be happy having the last laugh when Monty is walking herself out of this kitchen.” Negative communications were also showcased by Max v Tony from Season 2 or Ryan v David from Season 3.
These negative individual behaviours are often understood through underlying cognitive mechanisms and/or motivation factors. For example, the self-serving bias can be useful in understanding why the participants during these seasons attributed team failures to particular team members, by blaming them. According to this cognitive mechanism, an individual attributes successes to internal factors (overestimation of capabilities) and failures to external factors (underestimation of others’ capabilities). Another cognitive theory that extends a viable understanding of the negative behaviors is the self-verification theory. According to this, an individual aims to ensure a congruence between their self-perception and the way in which others perceive them. Therefore, team leaders evading responsibility, is a way to ensure that the judges perceive them just as they perceive themselves - not guilty of the team failure. Motivational factors such as need for achievement (i.e., winning the competition) also stand to be a concrete explanation for such negative group behaviours. However, it is important to understand that individual behaviours do not take place in a vacuum. In a deeply individualistic culture such as that of US, independence, self-reliance, and self-fulfillment are the strengths that are in contrast with collectivistic behaviours such as generosity and self-sacrifice.
In contrast to the earlier seasons, team challenges in Seasons 9 and 10 of MasterChef US have showcased some fascinating changes. There has been a reduction in blaming; team leaders exhibited a relative increase in conscientiousness by accepting responsibility for failures; and there was greater positive communication. For example, in Season 9, when leadership responsibilities overwhelmed Juni Cuevas, Taylor Waltmon stepped up as the team captain - a move that was appreciated by both teammates and judges, alike. Furthermore, Wuta Onda in Season 10 took responsibility for team failure on account of him being the team leader. It’s interesting that these changes happened despite a continual presence of external incendianary factors, i.e., the drama-feuling judges, Gordon Ramsay and Joe Bastianich, across the 10 seasons. What then, could have caused such a magnanimous shift in this representation of the contestants on the show?
MasterChef US Series kicked off in 2010, with the latest season (Season 10) ending in 2020. Thus, one could argue for an observable shift in cultural and individual make-up. In lieu of this, one of the most significant impacts that have occured vis-a-vis the American demography is that of immigration. In fact, where Season 2 of the show included 3 participants with non-American ethnicity (born to immigrant parents in America) Season 9 included 6 such participants. Reports suggest that not only is there a surge of immigrants in America over the past 10 years, Latin Americans and Asians stand to be the largest number of these. The different societies dwelling in these two continents have long been characterised as collectivistic. Thus, the transference of cultural beliefs and practices, with respect to group behaviors, can explain the sudden shift towards the aforementioned communal behaviours. In fact, the representation of different ‘ethnic’ groups has considerably increased in the show - something that MasterChef Australia mastered a couple of seasons ago. Secondly, political polarisation coupled with the rise of social media activism, has established solidarity as a cornerstone of revolution. There is an increased importance given to the need for kindness, generosity and cooperation (Wuta from Season 10) over previously upheld self-fulfilling attitudes (Krissi from Season 3).
Alternatively, this shift could be a production necessity to maintain a similarity in the format of the show, owing to its global consumption. This can be a determinant of actual attitude and behavioural changes. Whatever may be the cause(s) of this shift, it has been a refreshing departure from sabotage-fueled competition. Perhaps, a new American thinking?
Yarshna Sharma
