I'm watching episode two of the real life squid game and it's an interesting lesson in psychology and mentality.
I don't know how many people have watched the original series but this is where they play the honeycomb game.
The game itself is simple but tricky. You get a honeycomb in a dish and have to cut out the shape in less than ten minutes without breaking the honeycomb.
You have a needle and your wits to get it done but there are different levels of difficulty.
You can see the four shapes here ranging from circle to umbrella. You do not want to see umbrella.
The interesting part of the real life game is deciding who gets what shape. The players were all told to line up in four lines before entering the arena. When the first group of four players enter the arena they are faced with two minutes and four different doors with the four shapes on them.
They are told to agree between themselves who gets what shape. Since nobody wants umbrella it becomes a battle of wits to see how they shapes get distributes.
The first two sets of players can't agree as nobody will take the umbrella and the others try to get the one that they want.
They all get eliminated. They can't come to a fair agreement and all lose because of it.
The others players are watching this all unfold on the big screen so by the third group they know that somebody will have to do it.
The other players all pick their doors and the weakest player gets stuck with the worst outcome. He isn't willing to die for a better outcome and can't overpower or persuade the others that he should get a better shape.
It's an experiment in dominance and leadership. It's a really good episode just for this.
What he doesn't know at the time is that by choosing the umbrella door is that he dooms everybody else from his line to the same fate. His one choice affects everybody that follows and leads to himself and the majority of his line getting eliminated from the game from his poor choice.
Somebody had to make the call eventually or there would be no players left but it's interesting to see people making huge choices in real time and the consequences of those choices.
