Cosmetic Surgery TV Shows Get Viewers Pondering

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The findings about frequent viewers feeling more knowledgeable aren't unique to plastic surgery shows, he said. "People who watch crime shows or medical shows think they have more information on how that works," Fischoff said. "They may or may not be accurate."

When patients get inaccurate information from television reality shows, there can be a downside, he added.

"In the early days of psychotherapy, movies about dream analysis were popular," he said. "Most therapists are not Freudian," Fischoff noted, and so they do not offer dream analysis. However, patients who watched those movies "would come in to a therapist and say, 'If you won't listen to my dreams, you aren't a real therapist,' " he said.

But Fischoff believes the study still does not go far enough in examining the relationship between TV viewing and cosmetic surgery decisions.

"It would be interesting to correlate the amount of show viewing with what they have done," he said. For example, determining whether those who view the shows are any more or less happy with the results.

In future research, Persing said, his team does hope to examine some of those questions. He also wants to continue the research to see if those prospective patients who thought their real life plastic surgery experience was anything like what they saw on "reality" TV, especially in terms of longer-term outcomes.

More information

To learn more about cosmetic surgery, visit the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.