The psychology behind I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!

Happy Friday all! I cannot believe we're now in December already?! This only means I can begin the official countdown to Christmas, my birthday & 2024. (They all come at once for me within just 7 days😂 )

Putting that obvious, but irrelevant information aside, I want to do a kind of blog post which I haven't done for as long as I could remember the last time I did so. (As the 3 first words in the above title state)

And because it's also that time of year again, where a certain iconic TV programme invades ITVX (as it's now known as these days) for 4 weeks, I felt like discussing the psychology that lies behind it. Just to pre-warn you all, I will be sharing my thoughts in this post as well.

I'm sure most people can say that I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is one of the most entertaining programmes to come around every year, as 12 celebrities participate in scary & silly challenges. All of which is set in a remote jungle located in Australia. And the 2 hosts are none other than the Geordie duo, Ant & Dec.

But I ask myself this rhetorical question: "What makes this TV programme so entertaining & popular?" Could it depend on what celebrities go into the jungle? Could it depend on which celebrities do what challenge? Could it be that Ant & Dec are the main hosts? Could it even be the the fans' gossip/opinions on social media? The possibilities are endless.

In my own personal opinion, I would say all of the above. Purely because this TV programme has been running the same way since 2002. (Including when the show had to relocate to Wales for 2 years running due to COVID-19 restrictions)

Whenever I watch a celebrity take on a thrilling challenge on public television, it makes my mind think: "Wow! They are so brave at doing that!" And yes, even the celebrities who do these challenges on IACGMOOH like to think they are hard as nails, just for the purpose of the rest of the public to think that way as well. However, the harsh reality is, that it's easy for any celebrity to forget that they are a human being at the end of the day.

To further extend on that point, they get into this habit of people pleasing by thinking they can do anything, as they chose to go on a popular TV programme to undertake a series of crazy challenges. This is also where they develop this mindset of behaving as if they were Superman or Superwoman, (for all you feminists out there) and that giving up is simply not an option. But if any celebrity ended up having to shout: "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here!" When they feel like they cannot cope with a challenge due to feeling too scared, they just end up feeling guilty afterwards. Again, this is their Superman or Superwoman mindset talking to them by telling them that they should've done better.

I can only imagine the celebrities' thoughts if they were to bother reading the fans' comments all over social media about them...

All in all, IACGMOOH is always, and will always set out to people please. Whether it's aimed at the celebrities taking part or just the public watching at home. Especially if the programme itself is still encouraging social stigma across all media.

Where do children inherit their intelligence from?

After a long 4 month hiatus... I FINALLY have the time to come back blogging on here again! Rather then revisit on all of my reasons why, I'll just cut the long story short by saying that I had many life priorities to deal with since my last proper post on here, and quite literally many as well, which left me with no choice but to put myself off from blogging during that time. It was even longer than I had originally thought I was going to be off for.

Back to my titled above topic, I was curious to know where intelligence comes from, and especially in children. This was something I was actually doing research on bit-by-bit during my said hiatus period. Although I was looking into several articles about where do children inherit their intelligence from, just to be sure that I was going to get the same response to help me find the answer into that piece of research.

As it turns out, the final result into this research ended with that children inherit their intelligence from their mothers.

Why? This is because that intelligence is carried on something called an X chromosome. In which, woman have 2 while men only have 1. Not to criticise men in any way, but as women have 2 X chromosomes, their children are likely more to inherit their intelligence from those 2 X chromosomes.

What is an X chromosome? Because I am no expert on biology or science, I'll share this link of my finding's for you to see for yourself: https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/chromosome/x/#:~:text=The%20X%20chromosome%20is%20one,the%20total%20DNA%20in%20cells.

An X chromosome has also been believed to be a gene known as a conditioned gene.

A fun fact for you all, there was a laboratory study which had involved using genetically modified mice! The purpose was to see if any of the mice had maternal or paternal genes in 6 part of their brains. This was to see which of them controlled different cognitive functions such as, eating & memory habits.

There was another study where researchers from Glasgow took a more human approach. It had consisted of doing interviews with 12,686 young people from ages 14 - 22 every year from 1994. The determining results of these young people had included education, race, socio-economic status. However, despite this, the Glaswegian researchers found that the most accurate result was still the IQ of childrens' mothers.

Moreover, the bond of a mother & child is a crucial aspect for connecting intelligence together between the two, as researchers from the University of Washington found the link of mother & child bond & brain growth. The strong bond of a mother & child is then followed by allowing their child to explore the world, as they get given a sense of security. As a bonus, a close mother & child bond will help the child to solve problems, as well as unlocking their true potential.

That's all to say for this post now.

So if there's anyone out there who is keen to know where child intelligence comes from, you have your answer right here!

Here's the link to my research evidence: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/children-intelligence-iq-mother-inherit-inheritance-genetics-genes-a7345596.html

Since my work/study timetable isn't so manic anymore, I shall make time for another blog post next Monday. Stay tuned!😉