Why we love Elvis and Drive to Survive?

So I'm going to attempt to answer two questions. 

The first - Why has Drive to Survive (DTS) reached its fifth season?

And the second - Why is Hollywood so obsessed with music biopics?

Now the reasons might be quite different in each case. But if we use behavioral science, there are certainly some very common elements, adding to the success of both these pieces of content.

Let's start with the first one, which is the Halo Effect. Now, this bias talks about the tendency for positive impressions of a person in one area positively influencing one's opinion or feelings in other areas. 

What this does in this context is makes us as viewers, practically fall in love with the F1 drivers or the musicians in question… even though it is actually just their driving or singing skills that we appreciate. Quite naturally this makes us want to spend a lot more time consuming content linked to them.

Now this may seem rather obvious, so let's move on to something a little deeper or below the surface.

The first thing that we'll talk about here is the Familiarity Bias. Now this  bias, has worked differently for both the shows but it's true in both cases. 

Let me start with what the familiarity bias is all about. It just says we are more positively predisposed to something that we are familiar with. 

If we first talk of the music biopic - be it Bohemian Rhapsody, Elvis or even I Want to Dance with Somebody… These are stars and music, that at least the older millennials and a lot of us, have grown up listening to. And this familiarity is something that draws us to their biopics. 

Now if we look at Netflix, it's it's more of a cyclical thing that's happening there. Because DTS in fact, is creating a huge amount of familiarity with the key people associated with F1 as well as the sport itself. And this is pushing people to watch more of the actual races. Much to the annoyance of hardcore racing fans who really don't care for this new breed of DTS F1 fans.

Now, the more people watch F1, the more familiar they get with it and that familiarity is  bringing people back to watch DTS. This is creating one big cycle of viewership.

Moving on to the third common bias that is impacting their success, the Confirmation Bias. This bias is the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one's existing beliefs.

So let's take DTS first. All over social media, we see the various race drivers and how they interact with one another. We see posts with their partners, develop perceptions and create a scenario in our heads. Now on DTS you're certainly getting to see them not just at work but at their homes, with their families, with their kids, with one another. And the perceptions that you've created about them are suddenly just getting confirmed for you and that's the confirmation bias which is really pushing us into watching more of this content.

In the case of the music biopics it's a similar situation. You know, have read and heard about Elvis or for that matter, Freddie Mercury and decided what they are all about. Now suddenly you have these movies which are showing you that part of their lives, which you had anyway created in your heads. The confirmation bias allows you to relate with this content at a much deeper level and so you land up consuming more of it.

So these were three biases that were common to both DTS and the music biopics and the success they have seen. But each has a bias that uniquely works for them as well.

Let's start with the music biopics.

Now we have grown up with the music that's at the heart of these biopics. This music has been part of some very special times in our life. And here creeps in the bias Rosy Retrospection. This bias talks about how people sometimes judge the past disproportionately more positively than they judge the present. So when we see these biopics, it is a completely different feeling. It makes us remember the good old days. And that's why we get drawn to something like an Elvis or Bohemian Rhapsody because those are songs that have a different kind of meaning to us. Beyond just just a song. They have a connection to our life. They have a connection to special moments from our past, and that's where Rosie Retrospection comes in. 

There is a unique bias for DTS as well. This is referred to as Parasocial Interactions. Here, we imagine a two sided relationship in our heads with celebrities, this has infact grown a great deal now with social media because we're interacting with them, we're seeing content from them every day, literally and we almost create this sort of a two way relationship. When in reality, it's obviously a one sided one. 

Now when this audience is fed with something like DTS, that is centred around the lives of these very celebrities, this parasocial interaction gains even more support. They move into their houses, they move into their relationships, they start becoming a part of their interactions with other drivers, and suddenly they become part of the entire life of the driver in question. Loving every moment of it...

These five behavioural biases hopefully put the success of DTS and the music biopics in perspective. I am a fan of DTS myself and have loved at least Bohemian Rhapsody and Elvis... but the reason for this comes from an underlying unconscious bias.