What the reality series has taught us about real-life dating

By Diane Vadino
Special to MSN TV

"The Bachelor" is much more than one of the nation's highest-rated reality TV shows: It's a live-action research lab for anyone interested in the ins and outs of dating. Longtime viewers have seen it all: lovers, liars, losers and every level of "relationship talk," from getting-to-know-you niceties to gut-wrenching breakups at the altar. (Well, the engagement altar.) Haters can carp that it's fake as much as they like, but its fans know that real emotions are all too often genuinely on the line -- and that these nascent relationships, played out for our viewing pleasure, offer loads to learn from. We took a long, hard look at several recent seasons of the show and "The Bachelorette" and came up with these dating tips.

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"The Bachelor" airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

(ABC)