The Traitors is both racist & ageist?

I see the same in the Strictly voting.

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So black and white people are “different tribes” and are unlike each other? You sound racist and xenophobic.
I have more in common with my black friends and relatives than I will ever do with the likes of Nigel Farage or anyone who supports him.

Aren’t there 7 left and 4 of them white, 3 of them not?

the older ones have gone yes, but Fiona and Harriet definitely did not help themselves there.

”aware of unconscious bias”😀But I know what you mean

In addition there is sexism .
I think people are generally more unforgiving of female traitors . You just have to observe the negative post about Rachel on MN
Also , on the celebrity version , I found that some posters were unduly hard on Cat describing her as sneaky and fake when the whole premise of the programme is that traitors are supposed to go undetected .
Cat had the triple ‘whammy’ of being young , black and female

I still can't get on board with the Diane love after she targeted Antony in season 2 for something he'd done before the traitors were even selected - unconscious bias at it's finest!

This season is was very apparent that particularly older poc were targeted first by a group of white traitors.

Unconscious bias in these shows tends to be far more acute in the first rounds. Once people get to know each other, it fades.

I think they could very easily do an hour's training as prep for the contestants. We have it at work and it just makes you aware of the fact that people tend to gravitate and agree with the people most like themselves. I now deliberately try and listen more to people who are less like me to try and check my own biases.

We were wondering last night if following Alan Stephen being traitors in successive series, any gay white men might be assumed to be traitors in the future!

I really didn't think Ross's banishment was bias, he was a gibbering wreck and didn't play the game well at all. It does seem odd that few PoC make it to the final though and I agree it could well be unconscious bias.

Of course unconscious bias it’s a thing. People saying it “ridiculous” should do a bit of googling and reading brocade you’re part of the problem.

I read last week in The Times that the BBC were thinking of having a session with any future contestants to make sure they are aware of unconscious bias.

I think that there is a consistent problem in traitors where the traitors will vote out anyone they think is clever. That often captures older or more professional people.

This is definitely true and I can understand why.....if you're switched on then you're a threat to the Traitors so an easy target for murder or the Faithful will see you as being a good candidate for a Traitor.

Really the best way to play the game seems to be to dumb yourself down a bit and befriend the person you suspect of being a Traitor in the hope they'll keep you in until the end.

At the end of the day we have evolved to trust people like us, and to distrust people not like us. This position has largely kept us safe since the dawn of man. We recognise our tribe members and families, the people most likely to defend us (I’m talking a generalised position here).

In “safe” times we can override this deeply ingrained mechanism, but when we’re under pressure, feel threatened our subconscious minds kick in and take us back to the deeply ingrained systems developed over tens of thousands of years. It happens to groups all the time, people seek out their own. It only appears to be an issue when white people do it though.

As resources get more scarce round the world, as people feel increasingly threatened we will see this playing out more and more I’m afraid.

I think this is probably a feature of gameshows generally and it's not fair to single out this one.

I also suspect people from diverse cities can tend to overestimate the racial diversity of the UK as a whole and end up seeing more bias than there actually is.

The entire programme is about people’s unconscious bias…

I'm not sure this is really a problem, it is just an implication of the game design.

In CZ series 2, one traitor was a criminal detective undercover as nice, friendly and emotional yoga teacher.
We have an additional long podcast not managed by the TV station when the players talk about themselves and their game with the moderator and director, and talk about how they saw the game and their strategy.

She assessed all faithful players for their gullibility and personality, and than went through this list, leaving her in the final with several nice people - intelligent but idealistic. They wanted to believe the good will win, they were not willing to be the one responsible for potentially banishing an innocent, and they lost.

It caused an interesting effect - over the time of the series (we have weekly broadcasting), it was shifting the attention - from the most visible ones at the beginning, through the middle game where the more strategic minds got out, to a time of the more quiet ones.

Yes, I actually felt uncomfortable .
In fact when the show started , the first thing my 21 year old dd said is that POC will be out first . She was right

I think this is true.

It's the way of the world that people are generally drawn to those they most identify with whether that's race, sex, height, age, background, religion, political views, schooling etc etc

Add into that the draw of physical attraction which is very personal and nigh on impossible to counteract.

I think the above so ingrained into society it would be impossible to remove.

I wish they had more older and POC in the cast from the beginning because of this very reason. It seems like being a youngish, white, interchangeable man gives you a major advantage (like in every sector of society I guess!) and honestly, they are all a bit dull. I would liked to have seen more of Maz, Netty, Judy etc. but they all just get bumped off immediately! Even anyone with any brains who might make the show more interesting gets murdered immediately. I wonder if the formula could change to no murder/banishment in the first two episodes? They could still have a round table to discuss theories but all players could be shielded from both murder and banishment for the first few episodes to make it more interesting. (Although with the way they all seem to be afflicted by some memory wiping virus overnight it might not make a difference).

Not sure about Ross’s banishment being ‘unconscious’ bias though. He was having a complete meltdown from the minute he stepped out of the car and that woman threw herself at him and he never really recovered from that. In a game where people are LOOKING for anything out of the ordinary to cling to, that was always going to look a bit suss! He was lovely though and I wish he had stayed in a bit longer.

Less of the interchangables please!

Metagaming= The Faithful picking on WoC because they have observed previous patterns. Hence Amanda's obsession with Jade.

It's a tough balance, no doubt.
I am a middle aged highly educated WoC myself, so I might be a target of metagaming if I went in.

Unconscious bias is definitely a thing in society
. Traitors is a microcosm of the self same society
I honestly don’t know why people deny this when studies upon studies have shown that this exists

You dont have to have a WOC in every game but anyone 'of colour'. They had a lot of backgrounds and races to choose from but chose a very narrow background, even from amongst the White people.
Also yes you may be right but im not 100% sure what Metagaming means 😀

I think that there is a consistent problem in traitors where the traitors will vote out anyone they think is clever. That often captures older or more professional people.
The faithfuls do it too at the round table, so you end up with the ones who haven't played the game well at all, and the Traitors ( usually) at the end.

Yes, absolutely unconscious bias at work. I love the show but it's very uncomfortable to watch for this reason.

The thing is choosing a WoC Traitor in every series has resulted in metagaming.

I agree its clear they have unconscious biases in the way they perceive certain people ( mainly poc). It exists everywhere. One way of counterbalancing that though is by having a mix of people in decision making roles, do you have different levels of bias counterbalancing each other( everyone has unconscious bias not just White people. Thats why I was so surprised that they chose 4 White traitors, and from similar ethnicities and backgrounds. The producers really should work on that next series as its become very noticeable.

All well expressed and I agree, mostly.

I think that there is a consistent problem in traitors where the traitors will vote out anyone they think is clever. That often captures older or more professional people.

And I do think that black women have a hard time on the show and almost always go early for one excuse or another. which I, as a casual viewer and not someone who normally is keeping an eye out for this sort of thing, have observed as a bit racist.