Big Brother, like most reality competitions, involves acquiring power through various means such as weekly-competitions or favors from the viewers. Each week the houseguests compete for safety and one player is voted out of the house by the other houseguests.
In a game of social warfare, reality competitions reflect the principles of rent that are explored in Public Choice. Houseguests vie for a limited number of valuable resources such as cash prizes, luxuries, and power (first 36 seconds). Economic rent-seeking activities include forming alliances, lying, and strategic behavior that maximizes benefits beyond what an individual player contributes.
Similar to the real world, rent-seeking behavior in the Big Brother house is unproductive for the social cohesion and experience of the other houseguests. In an environment where you are trapped inside for 18+ hours daily, required to take cold showers, and tasked with the sometimes impossible decision of evicting one of your fellow housemates, social cohesion can be equated to social welfare within the Big Brother economy.
Like our own community, the Big Brother community experiences the inefficiency of rent-seeking behavior.
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