The Bachelor star Nick Viall claims his highly-criticized decision to give Corinne Olympios the first group-date rose was part of a bigger diabolical-sounding plan.

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Olympios, a 25-year-old from Miami, FL, has emerged as The Bachelor Season 21's villain early on. Not only did she make out with Viall on Night 1, but she also took her bikini top off and asked him to hold her breasts on the season's first group date in front of other women.

Although her fellow bachelorettes assumed Viall would be turned off by Olympios' aggressive and sexually-charged behavior -- as she also enjoys interrupting his conversations with other women -- the Bachelor decided to give her the group date's only rose, therefore validating and rewarding her antics.

"When you are the Bachelor, you have very limited resources and time to get to know these women and I think you try to use everything at your disposal," Viall told ABC News.

"As far as moving relationships forward, I think the most important thing is that those relationships are moving forward and [the women] get a rose to continue to allow them to move those relationships forward. So whether it's a group-date rose, a one-on-one rose or just a rose at the Rose Ceremony, I think doesn't make too much of a difference."

Viall then explained his perspective on handing out a group-date rose.

"I think you can give out a group-date rose to accomplish a few things: you can validate someone... [or] you can also [use it to] see how other people might react."

Viall's decision to give Olympios the rose upset her competition as well as home viewers, with some questioning whether Viall was truly looking for a future wife or just someone to mess around with.

Surprisingly though, Viall admitted he understood the blonde beauty's dating approach was probably "rubbing some of the other women the wrong way."

So why would he do it? The Bachelor star told ABC News that he was curious to see how the women would handle such a frustrating situation and whether they'd be open and honest with him about their feelings.

"I think sometimes you learn more about someone when they're upset about a situation and how they might communicate versus when things are going their way," Viall explained.

Some fans could argue Viall was testing the bachelorettes or even playing mind games, but he stands by his tactics.

"So I was curious to see if any of the women were a little put off by the fact that Corinne got the group-date rose, how they would how communicate that with me," Viall said.

"Would they talk about me behind my back? Would they bring it up to me directly? And if they brought it up to me directly, would they do it in a way that was effective? Could we resolve it and come to a mutual understanding of the situation or would it blow up?"

The Bachelor's ultimate goal was apparently to get to know the women as well as he possibly could.

"Seeing how people react to a situation, you can tell a lot," Viall disclosed. "You're trying to learn about these women and the possibility of how they might be in a relationship outside of that [reality show] world."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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