What forensic psychology and evolutionary biology tells us how to win the treatments

Hoods up, turned on torches, knives sharpened: viewers everywhere in the UK read for another of the only one of The treatments This evening, the TV game shows where trying to remove the ruthless (not strictly real) murderers walking among them.

For psychologists – both professionals and armchairs – The treatments is a gold min of dishonest human behavior to choose from one another and analysis. And it’s not just psychology. Game theory, human development and criminology are just some of the scientific fields that offered clues about the show’s machiavellian dynamics.

We examined experts in treason (academically …) to find out what it really requires to win The treatments. WARNING: SPOILER UP IF YOU’RE NOT UPDED WITH THE SHOW.

Take care of the conformity bias

“Having a strong trait seems to be something that other people notice as being influence and potential threating,” says forensic psychologist Clea Wright, who hosts a podcast about The treatments With colleagues from the University of Chester, UK. She pronounces competitions like Yin (too intelligent), the elen (too emotional) and Armani (too confident).

Their underpatients have probably been linked to the conformity bias, the trait of people that cause most of us to confirm to social norms. People who donate compliment do not like or distrust.

This is not the place of altruism

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

“Remember, it’s not a collaboration game,” she says. “It’s a game of deception, a survival game. You have to be there at the end to win. It is a mistake that some players make because they also trust the people they are close to. “

Emmott says we developed to help ourselves in front of others, so that any altruistic behavior seen on the show has a selfish advantage behind it. And apparently altruism is not a bad tactic where you are a faithful or a treatment.

“In the game context, it works to be cooperative as a signal of reliability. A good example may be obvious not to go after the shield [which protects you from the next murder] During the tasks of the show.

But here is where Machiavellian intelligence comes in – because everyone knows the rules of the game, a good player will not take altruistic behavior at face value. “In this game it is not an honest signal because there can be extremely motives for you to collaborate,” says Emmott.

So watch out for the lovely guys. An analysis of thousands of messages between players in Diplomacya game that shares similarities with The treatmentsFound that players, as we excessively polite, were more likely to betray the Oters.

Take care of bias in the group

“We know from social psychology that when people form social groups, they have what is called a group in the group and this can really be accelerated in The treatments”Says Wright. “” “[Contestants] Show preference behavior to people who are in that group with them. That’s why things went wrong for Minah after recruiting Charlotte as a treatment.

For Minah, who always recruited female therapist, her group was the so -called sisterhood she created. “She identified it a lot as a sisterhood, she used the word a lot,” says Wright. “The problem was that Charlotte already had a strong group identity with the faithful. So when she was recruited, kind of against her will, she had no allegiance to the new group.

And what happened? Charlotte doubled Minah immediately and Minah was voted out the next night.

Wright says the same group in the group can lead to a hot mentality when players vote, and an illogical confidence in people with the game.

What makes a good liar?

Nervous or incoherent answers to questions generally look with suspicion, even if someone tells the truth. That’s because these behaviors are bound to stereotypes about what people think Liars do. A better gift is people who always say Sching, says Emma Barrett, a psychologist and criminologist at the University of Manchester, UK.

“One thing to look for is someone who always tents the same story in exactly the same way and doesn’t really elaborate when they do,” she says. A story may sound plausible, but when we repeat it, we usually add details as we remember them. “People sometimes fail to be aware of honesty. But it is not so that recall works in real memories.

Think like a scientist

“A brand of a good detective is a high tolerance of ambiguity. They do not come to conclusion quickly, ”says Barrett. It is equivalent to thinking for a scientist: “You may have a plausible hypothesis about something. Then you ask yourself about the assumption you make and the gaps in your understanding. You must actively look for evidence that DiscConfirms the hypothesis you generate.

Trophies are not very good at it, we The treatmentsBut another tactic they could use is to encourage a suspected treaty to speak more than they like. It’s about giving them enough ropes to hang with, says Barrett.

“If you have faithfully, a good strategy for discovering a treatment is subtly encourage them to speak,” she says. “For example, if you were a police officer and you would know that someone had given you a fake address is a question you might ask,” oh, how do you get there, what’s your nearest station? “

If in doubt, can you try game theory?

An uninformed majority will always lose to a fully informed minority. It was this basis that Russian psychologist Dimitry Davidoff created Mafia – parlor -game, which The treatments is based – in the 1980s. Since then, Mafia Has been used as the basis for many game theory experiences and models.

The good news is that Davidoff wasn’t quite right. He believed that the faithful likelihood of flicking the evil is no better than luck. But many of the studies that model the game find out that the chances of victory are fairly equal – and even tilted in favor of the believers alive, possible because of the weight of the lies that faiths have to tell.

In other words, forget about cold math. If you really want to win The treatmentsShould you easily be more dishonest than everyone else.