David Roth explores the sociology behind the genre:
“The knee-jerk reaction to reality TV is that it’s dumbification,” [urbanist Richard Florida] says. “But it’s not, and the people watching aren’t dumb. They’re just looking for connection.” Florida uses Cambridge University psychologist Peter J. Rentfrow’s concept of communal consumers to describe reality junkies. “These are people who want stories about people and who used to rely on gossip, or on the little mini-dramas in their community,” he says. “And when you’re isolated in the suburbs, you don’t have that.”
Amanda Marcotte worries about our lack of empathy:
While the real world gossip mill can be really cruel and judgmental, I don't think it's so indifferent to suffering; on the contrary, a popular form of gossip is to talk about other people's woes and feel bad for them. ("Did you hear so-and-so's in the hospital?" "Such a shame the way he just ran out on his family." Frowns.) Reality TV and tabloids provide all the entertaining judging of gossip but very little of the empathizing.
The Dish 