Would People Give up Entertainment Thrills for the Sake of Safety?

People are eager to see dangerous stunts, regardless of the risk they pose to the performers. In a poll, conducted between 8/23/14 and 10/2/14, Meetville.com (dating app to find the right person) measured public attitude towards unsafe acrobatic shows.

The question read: “Should risky acrobatic shows be banned in order to avoid accidents?” With a margin of 42%, a whopping majority (71%) voted against abandoning stunt performance.

Yet, the danger proved to be real. Earlier this year, nine performers were seriously injured during an aerial hair-hanging stunt during the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus show. Providence public safety commissioner Steven Pare commented: "They've used this act many times. Unfortunately this particular clamp failed. It snapped off. We have it, we're analysing it, we're seeing why it happened to ensure it doesn't happen in the future. That's all part of our focus," assured Pare.

32,634 participants expressed their views.  From the USA respondents numbered 54%, from Canada - 4%, from Britain - 11%, from Australia - 8% and from other countries - 23%.

Alex Cusper, Meetville service analyst, reflects on the public opinion: “Flooded with diverse entertainment forms, people are hard to impress nowadays. This in its turn sets very high standards for performers, who are forced to fit in. I think that health safety should not be the cost for public admiration, yet society approves and performing artists give their consent after all.”

Meetville, a leading mobile dating service, regularly conducts research among its users. Millions of people from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia answer hundreds of questions every month. You can find the results of the poll here. If you are interested in research on a particular topic, please contact us. Any reprint of the material should be followed by clickable links to the survey.