What forensic psychology and evolutionary biology tell us about how to win The Traitors


Claudia Winkleman, host of The Traitors

BBC / Studio Lambert

Hoods up, torches lit, knives sharpened: viewers across the UK are ready for another delicious finale of The Traitors this evening, the TV game show where contestants try to uncloak the ruthless (not strictly real) murderers who walk among them.

For psychologists – professional and armchair alike – The Traitors is a goldmine of devious human behaviour to pick apart and analyse. And it isn’t just psychology. Game theory, human evolution and criminology are just some of the scientific fields that offer clues about the show’s Machiavellian dynamics.

We surveyed experts in treachery (academically speaking…) to find out what it truly takes to win The Traitors. Warning: spoilers ahead if you aren’t up to date with the show.

Watch out for conformity bias

“Having a strong characteristic seems to be something that other people notice as being influential and potentially threatening,” says forensic psychologist Clea Wright, who hosts a podcast about The Traitors with colleagues from the University of Chester, UK. She singles out contestants like Yin (too intelligent), Elen (too emotional) and Armani (too confident).

Their downfalls are likely to have been linked to conformity bias, the trait in humans that makes most of us conform to social norms. Individuals who don’t conform may be disliked or distrusted.

This isn’t the place for altruism

Emily Emmott, an evolutionary anthropologist at University College London, says players should keep in mind that “in evolutionary literature, altruism doesn’t really exist”.

“Remember, it’s not a cooperation game,” she says. “It’s a game of deception, a survival game. You need to be there at the end to win. That’s a mistake some players make because they’re too trusting of the people they’re close to.”

Emmott says that we evolved to help ourselves ahead of others, so any altruistic behaviour seen on the show has a selfish benefit behind it. And such apparent altruism isn’t a bad tactic, whether you’re a faithful or a traitor.

“In the game context, being cooperative serves as a signal of trustworthiness. A good example might be overtly not going for the shield [which protects you from the next murder] during the show’s tasks.”

But here’s where Machiavellian intelligence comes in – because everyone knows the rules of the game, a good player won’t take altruistic behaviour at face value. “In this game, it’s not an honest signal because there could be ulterior motives to you cooperating,” says Emmott.

So watch out for the nice guys. An analysis of thousands of messages between players in Diplomacy, a game that shares similarities with The Traitors, found that players who were excessively polite were more likely to betray others.

Beware of in-group bias

“We know from social psychology that when people form social groups, they have what’s called an in-group bias, and this can be really accelerated in The Traitors,” says Wright. “[Contestants] display preferential behaviour to people who are in that group with them.” This is why it all went wrong for Minah after recruiting Charlotte as a traitor.

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Charlotte is recruited as a traitor by Minah

BBC / Studio Lambert

For Minah, who always recruited female traitors, her group was the so-called sisterhood she created. “She very much identified it as a sisterhood, she used the word a lot,” says Wright. “The problem was, Charlotte already had a strong group identity with the faithfuls. So when she was recruited, kind of against her will, she didn’t have any allegiance to the new group.”

And what happened? Charlotte double-crossed Minah immediately, and Minah was voted out on the next night.

Wright says the same in-group bias can lead to a herd mentality when players are voting, and an illogical trust in people within the game.

What makes a good liar?

Nervous or incoherent answers to questions are generally regarded with suspicion, even if someone is telling the truth. That’s because those behaviours are tied to stereotypes about what people think liars do. A better giveaway is people who always say the same thing, says Emma Barrett, a psychologist and criminologist at the University of Manchester, UK.

“One thing to look out for is someone who always tells the same story in exactly the same way and doesn’t really elaborate when they retell it,” she says. A story might sound plausible, but when we repeat it we usually add details as we remember them. “People sometimes mistake consistency for honesty. But that’s not how recall works in genuine memories.”

Think like a scientist

“A mark of a good detective is a high tolerance of ambiguity. They won’t come to a conclusion quickly,” says Barrett. It’s similar to thinking like a scientist: “You might have a plausible hypothesis about something. Then you’ll ask yourself about the assumptions you’re making and the gaps in your understanding. You have to actively look for evidence that disconfirms the hypothesis you’re generating.”

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Hunting for traitors – in the early days of The Traitors’ third season

BBC / Studio Lambert

Faithfuls aren’t very good at that on The Traitors, but another tactic they could use is to encourage a suspected traitor to talk more than they’d like to. It’s about giving them enough rope to hang themselves with, says Barrett.

“If you’re a faithful, a good strategy to detect a traitor is to subtly encourage them to talk,” she says. “For instance, if you were a police officer and you wanted to know if someone had given you a false address, one question you might ask is, ‘Oh, how do you get there, what’s your nearest station?’”

If in doubt, try game theory?

An uninformed majority will always lose to a fully informed minority. It was on this basis that Russian psychologist Dimitry Davidoff created Mafia – the parlour game on which The Traitors is based – in the 1980s. Since then, Mafia has been used as the basis of many game theory experiments and models.

The good news is that Davidoff wasn’t quite right. He believed that the faithfuls’ probability of outing the bad guys is no better than chance. But many of the studies that model the game find that the chances of victory are roughly equal – and even tipped in favour of the faithful in live games, possibly because of the weight of the lies that traitors have to tell.

In other words, forget cold mathematics. If you really want to win The Traitors, you simply have to be more devious than everyone else.

Topics:



Source link

Share

Latest Updates

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Articles

TikTok returns on Apple, Google app stores as Donald Trump delays ban

TikTok returned on the US app stores of Apple and Google on Thursday,...

Confused Senator Rages That Self-Driving Cars Are Woke

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) believes that topics as diverse as solar eclipses and self-driving...

AI’s biggest obstacle? Data reliability. Astronomer’s new platform tackles the challenge

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content...
SULTAN88
SULTANSLOT
RAJA328
JOIN88
GFC88
HOKIBET
RUSIASLOT88
TAHU69
BONANZA99
PRAGMABET
MEGA55
LUXURY777
LUXURY333
BORJU89
QQGAMING
KEDAI168
MEGA777
NAGASLOT777
TAKSU787
KKSLOT777
MAS77TOTO
bandar55
BOS303
HOKI99
NUSA365
YUHUSLOT
KTP168
GALAXY138
NEXIA138
PETIR33
BOOM138
MEGA888
CABE888
FOSIL777
turbospin138
KAPAKBET
SUPERJP
sultankoin99
dragon88
raffi888
kenzobet
aladin666
rgo365
ubm4d
GERCEP88
VIVA99
CR777
VOXY88
delman567
intan69
CABE888
RNR303
LOGO303
PEMBURUGACOR
mpo383
cermin4d
bm88
ANGKA79
WOWHOKI
ROKET303
MPOXL
GURITA168
SUPRASLOT
SGCWIN
DESA88
ARWANA388
DAUNEMAS
ALADDIN666
BIOWIN69
SKY77
DOTA88
NAGA138
API5000
y200m
PLAYBOOK88
LUXURY12
A200M
MPO700
KENANGAN4D
cakrabola
PANDAGENDUT
MARVEL77
UG300
HOKI178
MONTE77
JASABOLA
UNTAR4D
LIDO88
MAFIABOLA77
GASPOL189
mpo999
untung138
TW88
JAGUAR33
MPOBOS
SHIO88
VIVO4D
MPOXL
JARISAKTI
BBO303
AONCASH
ANGKER4D
LEVIS4D
JAGO88
REPUBLIK365
BOSDEAL88
BOLA168
akunjp
WARTEGBET
EZEBET
88PULSA
KITAB4D
BOSDEAL88
STUDIOBET
MESINKOIN
BIMA88
PPNUSA
ABGBET88
TOP77
BAYAR77
YES77
BBTN4D
BBCA4D
VSLOTS88
MPO800
PAHALA4D
KPI4D
JURAGAN77
QQ188
BOLAPELANGI
C200M
QQ998
GWKTOGEL
MEGABANDAR
COLOWIN
VIP579
SEVEN4D
MPO188
DEWATA88
SURAT4D
SINAR123
LAMBO77
GUDANG4D
AWAN4D
PLANETLIGA
GT88
ROYALSPIN88
MAMAJITU
MITO99
PEDIA4D
WIBU69JP
333HOKI
SIDARMA88
NAGAEMAS99
HOLA88
CAKAR76
KINGTOTO
RATUGAMING
SSI168
PILAR168
ACTOTO
EYANGTOGEL
KAISAR328
SLOT628
KAISAR88
DOTA88
MAXWIN369
ALIBABA99
MM168
SQUAD777
NAGABET88
JAYABOLA
SEMPATIGAME
PANDAJAGO
PIKAT4D
SINGA77
YUYU33
MASTERPLAY99
VICTORY39
NASA4D
PERMATA55
SAKAUSLOT
CK303
MPOTOWER
CIPUTRABET
WINJUDI
DEWI5000
IYA777
MAHIRTOTO
GOSLOT88
TIPTOP4D
RAJA787
JBO680
JOKER188
EPICPLAY88
TRIVABET
KAISAR189
JOKER81
JPSPIN88
MAYORA4D
DJARUMPLAY
OVO88
BAKTI78
WINGSLOT77
ICAFE4D
PDTOTO
JETPLAY88
PORN VIDEO
https://link.space/@Hikaribet
https://bio.site/Hikaribet
https://heylink.me/Hikaribet39
CMBET88
CMBET88
didascaliasdelteatrocaminito.com
glenellynrent.com
gypsumboardequipment.com
realseller.org
https://harrysphone.com/upin
gyergyoalfalu.ro/tokek
vipokno.by/gokil
winjospg.com
winjos801.com/
www.logansquarerent.com
internationalfintech.com/bamsz
condowizard.ca
jawatoto889.com
hikaribet3.live
hikaribet1.com
heylink.me/hikaribet
www.nomadsumc.org
condowizard.ca/aromatoto
euro2024gol.com
www.imaracorp.com
daftarsekaibos.com
stuffyoucanuse.org/juragan
Toto Macau 4d
Aromatoto
Lippototo
Mbahtoto
Winjos
152.42.229.23
bandarlotre126.com
heylink.me/sekaipro
www.get-coachoutletsonline.com
wholesalejerseyslord.com
Lippototo
Zientoto
Lippototo
Situs Togel Resmi
Fajartoto
Situs Togel
Toto Macau
Winjos
Winlotre
Aromatoto
design-develop-test.com
winlotre.online
winlotre.xyz
winlotre.us
winlotrebandung.com
winlotrepalu.com
winlotresurabaya.shop
winlotrejakarta.com
winlotresemarang.shop
winlotrebali.shop
winlotreaceh.shop
winlotremakmur.com
Dadu Online
Taruhantoto
a Bandarlotre
bursaliga
lakitoto
aromatoto
Rebahin
untungslot.pages.dev
slotpoupler.pages.dev
rtpliveslot88a.pages.dev
tipsgameslot.pages.dev
pilihslot88.pages.dev
fortuertiger.pages.dev
linkp4d.pages.dev
linkslot88a.pages.dev
slotpgs8.pages.dev
markasjudi.pages.dev
saldo69.pages.dev
slotbenua.pages.dev
saingtoto.pages.dev
markastoto77.pages.dev
jowototo88.pages.dev
sungli78.pages.dev
volatilitas78.pages.dev
bonusbuy12.pages.dev
slotoffiline.pages.dev
dihindari77.pages.dev
rtpdislot1.pages.dev
agtslot77.pages.dev
congtoto15.pages.dev
hongkongtoto7.pages.dev
sinarmas177.pages.dev
hours771.pages.dev
sarana771.pages.dev
kananslot7.pages.dev
balitoto17.pages.dev
jowototo17.pages.dev
aromatotoding.com
unyagh.org
fairparkcounseling.com/gap/
impress-newtex.com/ajax/
SULTAN88
SULTANSLOT
RAJA328
JOIN88+
HOKIBET
GFC88
RusiaSlot88
Tahu69
BONANZA99
Pragmabet
mega55
luxury777
luxury333
borju89
qqgaming
KEDAI168
mega777
nagaslot777
TAKSU787
kkslot777
MAS77TOTO
BANDAR55+
BOS303
Login-HOKI99/
NUSA365
YUHUSLOT
ktp168
GALAXY138