Alan Cumming, host of the hit American version of the reality competition traitor, There’s a theory about what makes the show so captivating: “We see people lying, and we know they’re lying,” he said in a recent interview on NBC. Today. “And at the same time, you see people not behaving very well when lying and not enjoying it.”
traitor For example, Celebrity brings a group of competitors—actors, comedians, reality TV stars, and Olympic athletes—to a mansion in the bucolic Scottish Highlands to play a high-stakes version of the party game. mafia. The prize is a jackpot of up to $250,000. The objective of the game is for the “loyalists” to identify and exile the “traitors”, while the traitors try to convince everyone else that they are one of the good guys.
The lies, backstabbing and manipulation inspire games that really make watching TV enjoyable. But the show’s formula also begs the question: How do you win? The answer may lie in what science tells us about how and why we lie and how to know when someone is lying to us.
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playing as a loyalist
for players traitor As a loyalist, a winning strategy lies in being able to tell who is lying and who is not. Unfortunately, humans are exceptionally bad at detecting lies. One 2006 meta-analysis For example, a study involving more than 24,000 people found that participants correctly identified lies only 47 percent of the time – about the same as they could by just tossing a coin – and correctly identified truths only 61 percent of the time.
To catch a traitor in the act, players have to consider their innate biases, says Geoffrey Beattie, a psychology professor at Edge Hill University in England and author of the book. Lies, Lies and Liars: A Psychological Analysis. “And there are a lot of them,” Beatty says.
One such bias is that many of us are taught from a young age that if someone is lying, they won’t look you in the eyes. “That’s just not true,” says Beatty. Conversely, when people are planning what to say next, they tend to look away, whereas liars lie more often. Known for maintaining eye contact To avoid detection. “So forget about eye contact,” says Beatty.
Other body languages can tell more. When they smile, how come they suddenly stop smiling? Beatty says a sudden stoppage of the smile indicates it may be fake. Research has also shown that people who lie more often press their hand signals And it may also happen blink differently They are compared when they speak the truth.
One reason liars try to control their body language may be that telling a lie requires more cognitive effort, says Sharon Leal, a senior research fellow at the University of Portsmouth in England who studies deception detection. “It takes more mental resources to lie than to tell the truth,” she says. A similar situation occurs when we inadvertently stop dead people on the street to respond to a text message, for example, Leal says.
One way to take advantage of this tendency is what is called “cognitive interviewing.” for the faithful Cheat For players, Beatty recommends asking other competitors about their experiences in chronological order. This makes it harder to lie convincingly and consistently than to tell a single, rehearsed story. Research Leal and colleagues, published in 2008, found that police officers were better at detecting lies about an incident when fake “suspects” told false details in reverse chronological order.
Confirmation bias can also muddy the waters. “If you like someone and they share your views,” Beatty says, “you’re less likely to be suspicious when they start talking, because they’re saying the things you want to hear.” Similarly, people who are considered good-looking may take advantage of so-called Halo effect: some research suggestion of Beatty says defendants in criminal cases are more likely to receive lighter sentences if they are considered physically attractive.
Leal recommends focusing on verbal information – contradictory storytelling or word choice, for example. one in 2025 studyHe and his colleagues found that people are better able to detect lies when they hear someone make a statement rather than when they see it.
“I would completely ignore nonverbal behavior unless it’s something really obvious,” says Leal.
playing as a traitor
For traitors in the game, science has a few tricks they can try to make themselves more credible. Leal says that appearing open, friendly and approachable comes across as more trustworthy. For example, “You can tell me a little about your personal life” in the conversation, to give the impression of openness.
Beatty says another strategy is to “emotionally reshape the stories”. “The secret to being a really good liar is to change the emotional response to (the lie).” If you can remind yourself that you’re playing a game with your fellow competitors that you want to win, you can avoid answering questions that are more emotionally triggering — and thus telling, he says.
Ultimately, lying can prove costly. In this season, a traitor, love islandRob Roush revealed in the episode before the finale that his betrayal was “taking a toll.”
“It’s somewhat like holding a glass of water: At first, it doesn’t bother you,” says Leal. “But hold it down for hours and hours and hours and you’ll start to feel the strain of it.”
Viewers will have to wait until the show’s finale airs on Thursday to find out whether Roush’s efforts will be successful or whether he’ll be left with nothing. But his strategy of keeping his emotions in check, leaning towards alliances wearing overalls without a shirt Everything seems to be going well so far. As host Cumming shared recent episodes Of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen“The game is called traitorAnd he’s really good at it.”
