I have been a Love Island viewer since about 2019, starting with Season 6 and then bingeing the iconic Season 5 (arguably the best season of Love Island ever) soon after. So I have a soft spot for Love Island UK, as most people who started with the original series probably do. It gave us the well-known Love Island staples like Movie Night, recouplings, boys making breakfast and Casa Amor. It also bestowed iconic sayings upon us that even the USA version uses, such as “early days,” “my type on paper” and the iconic “I’ve got a text!” (though “fanny flutters” has not caught on like I had hoped it would).
Regardless, Season 8 of Love Island USA is currently underway and as tumultuous and juicy as you’d hope a Love Island season would be. Casa Amor ended with hurt feelings (per usual), Megan Thee Stallion recently hosted a Marie Antoinette and cake-themed challenge and we just witnessed maybe one of the wildest instances of a compulsive liar on Movie Night.
To help us dive into the psychology of Love Island, Dr. Monica O'Neal—a clinical psychologist, relationship expert and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, who is also a major fan of the series—shares why it's so different than other reality TV shows and common traits of people who watch Love Islandevery day it’s on. Plus, when does your love for the series turn problematic?
If you’ve never watched Love Island, you probably did a double-take when we wrote that the show comes out “almost every night” of the week above. That can’t possibly be true, you might be thinking to yourself. Well, dear reader, it is true.
So yes, people who love watching this show are sat six nights out of the week, thanks to the fact that Aftersun is so entertaining this year.
Why ‘Love Island’ Is So Different Than Other Reality TV Shows
I am an avid reality TV show watcher in general and have been since at least middle school. I started with Discovery Kids’ show Endurance, found MTV’s True Life in high school and fell in love with Jersey Shore around the same time (for better or worse). I now can’t get enough of Vanderpump Rules and Housewives franchises like the new Real Housewives of Rhode Island.
“Television has always served a psychological function. It is a form of art, and art has always been a container for the parts of ourselves we cannot easily express in everyday life,” Dr. O’Neal tells Parade. “Reality TV, at its best, gives us permission to escape into a world of epic romances, petty entanglements and the guilty pleasure of watching self-obsessed villains operate without consequence.”
“The real world has become so chaotic that ordinary reality TV no longer offers a sufficient escape,” she states.
“What Love Island does differently is structural,” Dr. O’Neal explains. “It makes the audience feel empowered. The daily format creates intimacy and investment. The games, the voting, the public recouplings: all of it gives viewers a sense of agency that the real world, right now, simply does not offer.”
“We feel like insiders. We feel like what we think matters, and in many ways, it does,” she continues. “You can see audience sentiment show up in the voiceovers, in the game prompts, in who gets voted out.”
Earnestness at its core
As Dr. O’Neal explains, one thing that sets Love Island apart from other shows “is a certain earnestness at its core.”
“Underneath all of it, people still want to watch young love bloom,” Dr. O’Neal tells Parade. “They want to see conflict resolved by the next morning, or failing that, worked out on a blow-up jousting field. The stakes are refreshingly low. Love Island gives us a world where connection is still possible, where rejection is survivable, and where the messiness of intimacy can be observed, discussed and enjoyed six nights a week.”
Spinoff success
“Either way, what Love Island has proven is that the appetite for watching people try, awkwardly, earnestly, sometimes disastrously, to fall in love is not going anywhere,” she states. “That instinct is as old as storytelling itself. Love Island just figured out how to put it in a villa and stream it six nights a week.”
In addition to the Peacock show being an actual escape from real life, Dr. O’Neal says that when it comes to the psychological reasons behind why people like Love Island, “at its most basic,” people love (young) love.
And not just that, but the fact that we get to watch conventionally attractive people fail at love is also a huge reason people tune in. Dr. O’Neal calls it “quietly satisfying.”
Essentially, though, at the core of the psychology behind enjoying Love Island is caring about something that is ultimately insignificant to our well-being.
The Surprising Trait Shared by People Who Watch 'Love Island' Every Day, According to a Psychologist
It might surprise you to hear that Dr. O’Neal says people who love Love Island typically have "social connectedness," explaining it as having “some social pull… even if they are introverts.”
“Part of what the show does is make you want to talk about it,” Dr. O'Neal explains. “Whether that means texting a friend during the episode, getting online and following recaps or making your own content about it, watching Love Island almost always becomes a communal act in some form. That social instinct is probably the most consistent trait I see.”
“The show is not really designed to be experienced alone,” Dr. O’Neal states.
As I mentioned up top, one of the things I really love about the show is how fascinating it is to view this social experiment in real-time. And “anthropological curiosity” is common among Love Island viewers.
2. The ability to appreciate the absurd without over-investing
Such is the case with many reality TV shows, but to actually get into Love Island and enjoy it, you have to have a little whimsy and be okay with a bit of silliness (especially when it comes to the challenges).
Related: 11 People Who Could Host ‘Survivor’ After Jeff Probst
While the concept of “parasocial relationships” is usually talked about negatively, the psychologist points out that there is actually a “healthy version” of this, and that’s the version that people who love watching Love Island possess. She equates this iteration as “something like being a sports fan.”
4. A sense of humor and an appreciation for collective creativity
Sort of similar to being open to absurdity in reality TV, Love Island viewers also tend to have a fantastic sense of humor. And if you’ve seen any TikTok or X/Twitter content about this season, you know what we’re talking about.
She shares that one of her “personal favorites to come out of this current season” is an emoji sticker “that a graphic artist created from Kenzie’s now-iconic smile.”
Related: Child Psychologist Reveals: ‘This Is the Best Children’s Show To Work on Empathy in Kids and Grandkids’
When Can It Become a Problem To Watch ‘Love Island’ 6 Days a Week?
Toxic parasocial attachments can become an issue for some viewers.
Dr. O’Neal explains that the hostility “did not stay contained to the season,” but instead “lingered” after filming and even forced Peacock to issue statements to the public while it was airing. She also points out that the network had to change up their social media policies for this current season, taking away the tradition passed down from the UK seasons of a close family member or friend becoming a sort of "spokesperson" or campaign manager for each Islander in the outside world via the contestants' personal Instagram accounts.
When other responsibilities are deprioritized
Dr. O’Neal also shares that watching Love Island six days a week (including Aftersun) can become problematic “when it starts displacing things that matter more.”
I can absolutely relate to this too. A couple of summers ago—during Love Island USA's legendary Season 6—my partner and I went on a weekend vacation with their family, and we made sure to make time at the end of our night to watch each new episode so we didn’t fall behind. This proved to be the correct decision because it just so happened to be the iconic moment when Andrea got voted off, followed by Rob’s crash-out heard around the world (you know the one: it gave us Leah Kateb's "And now, you're sending three home" line). However, if there was an outing planned, we didn’t choose the show over that.
When it impacts self-esteem
Back in 2018, before this impact had a label, Nuffield Council on Bioethics reported multiple studies that showed that Love Island UK and its advertisements caused an uptick in cosmetic procedures. One Irish clinic reported a 200% uptick in lip fillers attributed to the show, and a Birmingham cosmetic surgeon shared that more young women were coming in near the last few weeks of the series being on air. While we live in a world where Instagram ads prey on teenage girls and any reality TV show can influence women to have bigger lips or breasts, this “Love Island Effect” seems to prove itself year after year, specifically in the UK where the series tends to feature women who have more noticeable cosmetic changes in the face.
At the end of the day, Love Island, in any iteration, is a low-stakes, fun watch that has so many people hooked. Whether you’ve been watching for years like Dr. O’Neal and me, or you just started, it’s an immersive series that can become addictive, but can also be an insanely entertaining summer tradition. Only when it disrupts your actual reality is it an issue.
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Related: Psychologists Say if You Love Reality TV, You Likely Have These 9 Traits
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Dr. Monica O'Neal is a clinical psychologist, relationship expert and lecturer at Harvard Medical School. You can follow her on Instagram @dr.monica and @ifiwereyourtherapist, and @thedrmonica on TikTok.Hence then, the article about people who watch love island every day share this 1 surprising trait psychologist says was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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