The story of The Traitors - and why Ireland is all-in

The latest season of The Traitors has taken the country by storm, but what is the story behind the franchise's success?

Róisín Cullen explores the origins of the hit series, the psychology behind the games, and what it can tell us about how we interact with others in real life.

The story of how The Traitors became a global franchise starts with a shipwreck off the coast of Australia in the 17th century.

In June 1629, the flagship of the Dutch East India Company wrecked on islands near the western coast of Australia.

This led to mutiny and a drawn-out massacre as the crew split into rival factions.

Nobody knew who was in favour of the mutiny or who to trust once ashore.

Nearly 400 years later, Dutch TV executive Marc Pos became fascinated by the story of the ill-fated vessel after reading a book on The Batavia.

"Even people who thought they were on the same side ended up killing each other," Mr Pos tells RTÉ Entertainment.

This issue of "trust and who to trust" was the driving force of De Verraders - the first version of what would become a worldwide hit.

Mr Pos says in 2014, the issue of trust was at the forefront of his mind.

He started to think about what happens when members of a small society do not trust each other.

What started as a documentary became a reality game for the self-confessed news addict.

"Maybe I could allow myself to create a new arena, a new world," recounts Mr Pos.

The TV boss was so intrigued by the story of The Batavia that he thought the show could take place on a ship, on an expedition from island to island.

"In one of the first drafts of the format, then there was a kind of roundtable at the back of the ship," he says.

Mr Pos explains that if somebody was murdered in the show, they would be forced to walk the plank and be plunged into the ocean.

They would then have to swim to a nearby island while the ship set sail for another place.

During the creation of the show, Mr Pos liaised with a neuroscientist who told him that people cannot survive in a group or society where they don't trust anybody.

"That is the most uncomfortable way of living for mankind," says Mr Pos.

"If you are in a group and you can't trust anybody, you won't survive. You always have to trust somebody in a group."

Mr Pos learned that people choose who to trust instinctively and immediately as they enter a room.

"That is science. This is a part of the human behaviour. It doesn't matter if you live in India, the UK, or the Netherlands," he says.

'We just need to find support'

Dr Brendan Rooney from UCD's School of Psychology agrees that how we choose who to trust is largely subconscious.

The Director of the Media and Entertainment Psychology Lab says that humans are social creatures and competitors on The Traitors instantly want to make connections.

"We just need to find support," he says, explaining that this is an automatic process.

Dr Rooney says we make unconscious connections with people and choose who to trust, and that we carry our past experiences with us into situations like a tetchy breakfast or an on-edge roundtable.

"When someone reminds us of a bully in school or our favourite boss in work - we have gut feelings towards them," he says.

"Instantly we have our group of who is trustworthy and who is not."

Dr Rooney says people are then divided into groups of "us" and "them".

He says The Traitors is already a "mini-metaphor" for the real world, adding that it is not "a million miles away from university research projects".

However, "nibbles, sugar, and booze", as well as the physical exhaustion of tasks and filming all day, make it a "more extreme version of the real world".

"We have to work together. We don't have all the information, and we have to figure things out," he says.

People's reputations are also on the line, as the show is being watched by a national audience, so being accused of being a Traitor can be seen as being called "untrustworthy" to the country.

"We are putting ourselves out there. Everybody is talking about us," Dr Rooney says.

Being told "you look like a Traitor" attacks someone's sense of self, as it speaks to their identity.

This is where an accusation "hurts a little bit more" and where conflicts can last long after a roundtable.

Dr Rooney says trying to spot a Traitor is difficult because our skill of "being able to tell whether someone is happy or sad is based on us knowing them".

"We use what someone is normally like as our baseline," he explains.

In the first roundtables, it is better to randomly pick who you think is a Traitor, instead of choosing someone because they are fidgety or drinking a lot of water, he says.

And as for the Traitors, Dr Rooney stresses that telling a lie takes a lot of work.

"To be a good liar, you need a good memory and to keep track of everything you have been saying," says the professor.

"A more elaborate lie can be harder to keep."

Withholding some information may be easier for ambitious Traitors, as well as telling a story that is closer to your own one.

Dr Rooney says that when we have a theory, we automatically look for something that backs it up.

'So much in Ireland is what is unsaid'

But a more strategic player would look to falsify their hypothesis – or look for reasons why they are wrong, he explains.

Dr Rooney says there are cultural values around the world that make each version of The Traitors stand out.

"So much in Ireland is what is unsaid. We are in tune at reading body language," he says.

According to Dr Rooney, Ireland is interesting, as we have a combination of collectivism and individualism in our society.

"Our groups, families, and communities are important to us. We still have a western idea of wanting to do well," he says.

While in ordinary life, we may try to hide that feeling of being out for ourselves, a game like The Traitors allows us to step outside of cultural constraints and do things we normally would not.

Mr Pos has found the different versions of the show in over 20 countries incredibly interesting.

"It's always the same reaction. But how it shows – that culture," he says.

The show's creator says that a series could take place in the same language, but people would have completely different mannerisms.

On the Irish version of the show, an on-site psychologist is always available to competitors.

Dr Richard Hogan says they want to ensure competitors have a "great experience".

"The duty of care is paramount here. It's good TV, but it is also ethical TV," he says.

'Nobody knows what is true'

Before entering Slane Castle, the contestants are told what to expect, from lack of sleep to the social media storm that will follow.

"When we see people first, our brain is making incredible in-out biases about people, particularly when they are on TV," says Dr Hogan.

"Your personality and how you're perceived – that's part of the game. When someone has never had that attention before and they've never been scrutinised like that before – that's what we prepare them for."

Dr Hogan says the game is structured for "unbelievable human interaction", as "nobody knows what is true".

He says it shows how "we knit with people socially and how we're designed for that".

"You see people connecting with each other because they remind them of an image of someone that they like. That's where you see them pairing up with people that they like."

"They've only met them for 20 seconds and they feel like they know them. They're hoping for confirmation bias to show them that this person is a good person. That's just who we are as a species," says the expert.

Dr Hogan says that then, when someone is revealed for having lied about their background, "there's chaos in the group" because others feel "let down".

"You see the whole of it played out in weeks; you see the whole social interaction for Homo sapiens in a condensed period," he continues.

Dr Hogan says adding money to the mix makes things trickier.

"We all want money, but none of us want to say it. You see it collectively in the group - how they respond and talk about money. To kind of go after money, they might feel shows them [as] a greedy, fake, duplicitous person."

The psychologist says money brings up interesting conversations, as it is a "kind of sign of what you're about or what you want, your ambition".

He also says down-to-earth contestants make the Irish version relatable to people at home.

"What makes the Irish game so interesting is that the people who play it are all of us. They're so genuine and they're not overdramatic," he says.

But Dr Hogan cautions that even viewers at home can forget that "it's all a bit of fun".

"It's just a game and people are playing a game to win a few quid," he says.

The Traitors Ireland airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.