Well as most of Australia is aware Married at First Sight (MAFS) 2017 has finished, to quote T.S Eliot’s ‘The Hollow Men’; “This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper.” Frighteningly MAFS is already advertising for singles to put their heads in the noose of the next season. Even more frighteningly, I’m sure they will find many more willing victims.
This season I took time to admire the producers for emphasising that the show is an ‘experiment’. To me ‘experiment’ implies that they aren’t responsible for whatever accidents occur. After all, it’s an ‘experiment’, anything can happen, for good or ill.
What MAFS obviously isn’t is a process that helps individuals meet someone they can spend the rest of their lives with. I would be interested to see some statistics on the success of randomly matching similar aged, appropriately gender orientated individuals looking for a long term relationship with the success of this show.
At close of season 4 they had a total of 3 couples out of the entire 4 seasons of matching; and only one that has lasted any time at all. Interestingly the couple that have lasted since season 1 are also the youngest match, only had to consider moving a few kilometres ‘for love’ and, being from the first season, may have been selected more for a chance of success and less for screen drama. All the couples on the latest offering had to move states and sacrifice other relationships (at a minimum and sometimes complete lifestyles) for this new ‘love’.
So let’s do the math. Out of 46 individuals only 6 currently have a partner as a result of this show. This is a 13.04 % success rate if the latest 2 couples continue, or 8.7% if one couple fails and around 4% if both fail. Does it prove that MAFS is better than going it alone…..? It sounds like a very hit and miss outcome to me, no better than if they had configured these couples in any other random matching. Probably not as good as if they had matched them on proximity and genuine interest in a long term relationship as well as age and attraction to smell!
Yes smell, applicants were given T shirts that smelt of other applicants to see if they were attracted. And most interesting of all the couples with the best chance of success, as predicted by this method were……Alene & Simon, Nick & Sharon and Susan & Sean: According to MAFS expert Dr Trisha Stratford, who is a clinical neuropsychotherapist (the study of underlying biological attraction.) (http://www.mamamia.com.au/married-at-first-sight-best-couple/) And these are the couples who actually stayed together or at least both wanted to. Maybe just give participants the smell test and ditch the other relationship ‘experts’.
But I am still left wondering what the success rate would be if the ‘experts’ had actually helped guide these people through all the issues they faced. Maybe the relationships would only have lasted until there was no-one there to help. Maybe couples could have been offered ongoing assistance. But maybe……the participants would have learnt and grown as people, so they would be more ready to find a long term relationship on their own.
The ‘Experts’ try to look as if they’re contributing something to the ‘experiment’http://www.smh.com.au/comment/weve-been-conned-by-married-at-first-sight-20170402-gvc500.html
I spent some time imagining the couple of season 4 of MAFS having regular, professional, relationship, counselling sessions, instead of the public, group interrogations they endured. The couples might have had a better chance of success, and certainly wouldn’t have gotten away with as much ‘inauthentic’ behaviour (as Nadia said about Anthony). Other psychologists and relationship counsellors wouldn’t have had to feel so betrayed by their own profession. ( “I think that the psychologists who appear on it should hang their heads in shame because to be part of something that is so voyeuristic, so exploited, is not what psychology should be about — that’s my personal view.” http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/experts-slam-married-at-first-sight-after-it-left-one-contestant-scarred-i-had-to-go-incognito-and-cry/news-story/72418a2615c6f7b4cc0fc0353e14bb21) We, the viewing audience, might all have learnt something. And, you know what, I think it would have been just as interesting Television.
Alison