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traitor This may seem like another reality TV gimmick. But look closer, and you’ll find a psychological pressure cooker where deception, trust, and paranoia are all on display.
The contestants live together in a Scottish castle. Some are secretly chosen as traitorsTasked with “murdering” his teammates while avoiding suspicion. Everyone else is “loyal”Efforts are being made to eliminate the traitors before it is too late.
Without any evidence, alliances are fragile and instincts become weapons. Let’s uncover the psychology behind every twist, accusation and betrayal.
in the middle of traitor It is a theory of mind. It is our ability to guess what others are thinking. In ordinary life, it helps us to empathize. In the palace, this fosters suspicion.
Players go through layers of bizarre thinking: “Does she know I’m suspicious of her?” It is mentally exhausting. Stress impairs our judgment. We misinterpret silence, mistake our nerves for guilt and project our fears.
Alyssa (who starred in the first series) Banished simply for being silentHer calmness was seen as coldness, and this was enough to say goodbye, despite the fact that she was a loyalist, not a traitor.
Lying is mentally taxing. Suppressing the truth, fabricating a story, managing facial expressions, all of this increases our cognitive load. Under pressure, skilled liars also show cracks: pauses, microexpressions (brief, involuntary facial expressions that reveal a person’s true feelings) and anxiety.
But here’s the twist, those who tell the truth look just as irritable. Psychologist Paul Ekman called this the “Othello error”: mistaking fear for deception. Series 2’s Paul played a cool, calculating game, manipulating perception with emotional detachment. The group could not survive.
The Round Table is where logic collapses. Once a few confident voices point fingers, others fall into line. This is known as groupthink, and it is where the drive for compromise overrides critical thinking.
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Add confirmation bias, where we only see what we expect, and things escalate rapidly. In Series 2, contestant Kyra was expelled after misreading a comment. No one challenged it. Goodbye Kaira. Often, they not only get it wrong, but even agree when it is wrong.
About the author
Paul Jones is Associate Dean for Learning and Student Experience at Aston Business School, Aston University.
This article was first published by The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons license. read the original article,
Problem with ‘vibes’
When facts fail, instinct fills the gap. But the “weird vibes” are shaped by prejudice in the group. We can’t help but trust people who seem like us.
Players who don’t fit the group’s emotional script – those who are too quiet, too blunt, too intense – become scapegoats. In contrast, traitors who reflect emotions survive. Wilf (Series 1) played it to perfection: loyal friend on the outside, silent killer on the inside.
Traitors do not see themselves as villains. They argue: “It’s just a game.” By rewriting the story, their cognitive dissonance (the discomfort of acting against their values) is resolved.
Devotees also do this. When they misgender someone, they convince themselves that the signs were there. This is not bad. This is self-preservation. Some people enjoy the tension of opposing values and actions.
In the absence of truth, perception dominates. Every laugh, pause or raised eyebrow becomes part of the performance.
Sociologist Erving Goffman called this “impression management”. But traitorthis is survival. Too passive? You are hiding something. Too vocal? You are being manipulative.
The goal is to appear confident, honest, and harmless. Even silence is strategic, but dangerous if misread.
we watch traitor Even after knowing more than the players, we still get it wrong. It flatters our instincts, then subverts them. We scream at the screen and fall into the same tricks.
It reflects our real life: teams, friendships, group chats. We manage all impressions. We all evaluate others. And under pressure, we all rewrite reality to stay safe. The real twist? psychological trap of traitor Not locked in any palace. They are everywhere.