The Traitors is both racist & ageist?

[TrademarkBrooklynBeckham]

I’ve been saying this for some time, and now the Times has analyzed the data.

Are The Traitors players prejudiced? Here’s what the data says:

https://www.thetimes.com/article/20eccb12-a919-4d59-8ce5-1e9925f9e948?shareToken=3e4f0566057b480a152802f21f97c26c

Spoiler alert - all white winners and just one non white person in the finals of the UK general traitors show.

YABU - It’s an evidence based show. Nothing to see here.
YANBU - The players are displaying unconscious bias against race, sex & age

Exactly!

I don't watch the show, but there was some interesting research on The Weakest Link in the US and unconscious bias in the 2000s. Obviously there's a much bigger data set there. That found that there wasn't discrimination against Black people and women (though hypothesised that this might actually be because of a fear of looking racist or sexist on TV!) but that contestants underestimated the ability of Hispanic people. Interestingly, they found that there was also consistent ageism but that was a different kind - it wasn't that contestants were underestimating the ability of older people, they seemed to just not want them around. They could look at this for the Weakest Link because there's a bit where you want to get rid of the worst people, to build up the team, and then a bit where you want to get rid of the strongest, so that you're more likely to win overall. Hispanic people were over-voted out in the first bit, and under-voted out in the second. Older people were over-voted out at both stages. Link here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/425591?seq=1

Incidentally, this is a piece of knowledge I haven't used since I was an undergrad and I'm delighted to be able to use it here!

If I went on Traitors- despite being a WoC- I would trust Harriet and Amanda. They are most like me. That's my unconscious bias. Faraaz actually isn't despite being of a similar ethnicity.

Would also have trusted Rachel up until the Traitor on Traitor fight!

Absolutely

I'm sure the players are biased on grounds of both sex, ethnicity and age. Most people are, and it would be quite remarkable if the producers of The Traitors had found contestants who were the exceptions to this rule.

I don't think that's an issue with the show so much as with society and human nature though. It's inherent in the game that people will vote against each other on all kinds of entirely subjective and irrational grounds, and the fact that we're here discussing it seems like a strength of the show rather than a weakness.

I also don't really want to see unconscious bias training. Will make it too rigged.

Maybe they should all be trained by former FBI agents to make them more aware of "traitorous" body language and micro expressions, too....

The data does seem to show unconscious bias. I’d be interested in if they are banned from discussing this at the round table - presumably if someone said “could we be unconsciously considering X for early eviction because of their race?” this would be edited out?

I’ve often wondered this.

And not only ethnicity, but in the early series, the people voted out early seemed more socially awkward and shy. Same with age and social class.

I’d want to challenge people on it if I thought that was happening, so I’m surprised no one’s said it.

Another example of my unconscious bias. I underestimated Jessie. Not because of her stammer. But because of her kids TV presenter dress sense! Sorry, Jessie.

I can't comment on this series because I'm not watching it but I was seriously uncomfortable with the way Diane behaved towards Anthony in series 2. She was so aggressively gunning for him over nothing and when she found he was faithful never explained her behaviour or apologized (although I guess it could have been edited out).

I think it's obvious that unconscious bias has an impact on decision making, as it does throughout most aspects of our society.

It's an issue that we need to tackle as a society, but I'm not sure how. Has anyone ever done any research into whether unconscious bias training actually makes a difference?

Morgan Freeman had the best take on racism. It's a shame the dividers can't feel the same, instead of searching for bias at every turn.

There's an evidence summary on this here but the short answer is that no, there's no evidence it 'works' in terms of changing behaviour.

What was his take?
I don't think this thread is divisive. Not sure if there are any other PoC on here, but as I have said, we also have our biases.

I think the advantage of unconscious bias training is just making you aware that it is a thing and hopefully makes you stop and think for a moment when you instinctively dislike or disagree with someone.

I think of myself as pretty unbiased (mixed race if relevant) but it was still helpful to recognise common patterns.

To tackle racism, stop talking about it. How are things ever going to progress with regressive thinking? I thought the whole idea of this show was to be calculating, manipulative and backstabbing. I don't understand how fairness and equality fits in with that.

Oh ok. Well I disagree then.

That's OK 👍

Today in focus podcast yesterday had some interesting points on this - not necessarily racism/ ageism - more about the in and out group - worth a listen

I think it would be edited to ‘protect’ contestants from backlash on social media.

Thank you

To stop racism we pretend that it doesn’t exist?

To stop unconscious bias in particular, we just ignore it?

I won’t be subscribing to that.

Maybe behind the scenes he had said something she didn't like about her (secret) son. Obviously, I'm just guessing but it could be something as simple as maternal protection.

Unconscious bias is a myth. It’s a way of veiling conscious bias.

it’s interesting that you say that people are thought to be faithfuls because they are seen as non-threatening - people will have conscious bias about people from other ethnic backgrounds being threatening, especially black men. It’s nothing to do with white people being seen as dull.