Citation

O'Mara Kunz EM, Howell JL, Beasley N. Psychol. Sci. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Association for Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/09567976231165665

PMID

37171988

Abstract

We examined whether there is evidence for racial and gender bias in the voting patterns of contestants on Survivor, a reality-television zero-sum game in which contestants compete for up to 39 days to win $1 million. Among 731 contestants across 40 seasons, we found evidence of racial and gender bias at multiple stages of Survivor. Compared with men, women were more likely to be voted out of their tribe first and were less likely to make it to the individual-competition stage of the game (i.e., the "merge"). They were also less likely to win Survivor. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) contestants, compared with White contestants, were more likely to be voted out of their tribe first and were less likely to make it to the individual-competition stage of the game. These findings suggest a systemic bias in favor of White men and against women of color.

Language: en

Keywords

bias; discrimination; aversive racism; open data; open materials; racism; sexism