Netflix Needs to Better Protect its TV Contestants and Consumers 

 

We are asking you to sign a petition regarding Netflix’s popular series Love is Blind for the reasons described below. We will be sending it to Ms. Emma Stewart, Ph.D., the Chief Sustainability Officer at the company. 

Netflix’s popular series Love is Blind has reached millions of viewers. It is an entertaining premise in which people have true blind dates where they can’t see each other. They must then decide if they want to get married based solely on emotional connection and personality compatibility. Marriages are legal and binding, so most contestants take the “social experiment” very seriously.

In Season 3, we see contestants exhibit emotionally abusive behaviors without consequence (as discussed in this blog post on Psychology Today). This is alarming for two reasons. 

First, contestants are put in a pressure-cooker situation with film crews recording their every conversation and a looming deadline to get married. This prevents them from taking the necessary time to get to know their partner, assess the relationship's health, and make the best decision for themselves. This means contestants may overlook abuse because they attribute it to the context of pressures associated with being on TV, or because they don’t have enough interactions with this person or time to see the behavior for what it is. 

Second, viewers watch emotional abuse and other unhealthy interactions without the show indicating they are problematic. Viewers, many of whom are young and may not have well-established ideas about what a healthy relationship looks like, could normalize these behaviors. They could then tolerate such behaviors from a partner, not knowing they are unacceptable or even toxic. 

We call upon Netflix to be a leader in helping promote healthy, safe relationships along with providing entertainment. Your company has an opportunity to teach millions of people what a successful and safe relationship looks like, an opportunity that most people don’t have. With the popularity of Love is Blind comes a duty to protect contestants and educate the public.

This duty is completely consistent with the obligation Netflix has to its shareholders to ensure the company’s ability to create value over the long term. According to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, there are only three issues out of a total of 26 ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues that are material to shareholders: customer welfare, selling practices & product labeling, and competitive behavior. We want to flag “customer welfare” and here we include both the program’s contestants and its viewers. Failure to address this customer welfare concern will put the company’s reputation and potentially shareholder value at risk. It is in their self-interest to address this problem. Your signing this petition will make this very clear to Netflix.

There are five ways Netflix can support its contestants and ensure viewers are informed of any abusive behaviors. 

 

1. The show should hire a psychologist (or perhaps several) to support the contestants.
2. 
   The producers need to intervene when there is abuse. They must protect the contestants' welfare.
3. 
   The show should air the number for the Domestic Violence Hotline or other resources for people in unsafe or toxic relationships.
4. 
   There should be a message on-screen during an abusive interaction so that viewers know the behavior is unacceptable and know not to normalize it.
5. 
   To bolster the show’s premise further, providing couples therapy to the engaged contestants as needed.
6. 
   Please sign the petition below to show your support and encourage Netflix to consider taking additional steps to protect contestants and viewers from abusive or toxic relationships.

 

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Isabelle Eccles Morley

Professor Robert G. Eccles