A psychologist has created a three-minute quiz inspired by The Traitors to help fans discover whether they would be a Faithful or a Traitor in the castle, and what their instincts reveal about their decision-making style.
Dr George Sik, Chartered Occupational Psychologist and psychometric testing expert at eras, developed the Situational Judgement Quiz based on the hit BBC programme. It guides participants through nine scenarios reflecting the kinds of decisions contestants might face inside the castle.
How the quiz works
The quiz presents Traitors-style situations and asks how users would respond, with answers designed to reveal different approaches to decision-making. It takes just 2–3 minutes to complete and has no right or wrong answers. Instead, it identifies which decision-making style best matches your instincts – whether you naturally gravitate towards control, information gathering, collaboration or preserving relationships.
Situational judgement tests are commonly used in recruitment and assessment settings to evaluate how people handle realistic scenarios and make decisions under pressure. Unlike personality questionnaires, they focus on what a person deems an appropriate response to a particular situation.
What your answers reveal
According to Dr Sik, the fascinating element isn't simply whether someone chooses Faithful or Traitor.
"The interesting thing about The Traitors is that it puts people into situations where there is rarely a straightforward answer," he said. "You have incomplete information, competing priorities and enormous social pressure, so the decisions you make can tell us something about the way you approach situations where the outcome is uncertain."
The test's initial scenario asks whether you'd rather be a Faithful or a Traitor and presents different reasons behind that choice, from wanting control and information to preferring collaboration or building relationships.
Dr Sik maintains this is what makes The Traitors such a compelling setting for examining judgement. "Being confident about a decision and making a good decision are not necessarily the same thing," he explains. "Under pressure, we can be influenced by the information available to us, the people around us and what we believe the consequences of getting it wrong might be."
The difference between knowing and doing
The quiz also highlights a vital distinction between understanding what you should do and actually doing it. A situational judgement exercise can assess what people believe would be an appropriate response in a given scenario, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'd behave in exactly the same way under genuine pressure.
That makes The Traitors particularly valuable as a pop-culture touchstone: participants aren't simply answering questions about themselves. They're making decisions while relationships, uncertainty and the threat of elimination constantly reshape the situation around them.
"There is a big difference between answering a question when you're sitting comfortably at home and making a decision when you are surrounded by people you may or may not trust," says the expert. "The pressure changes the context, and that is precisely why situational judgement is so interesting."
The test can be used to examine four broad approaches: CONTROL – seizing the initiative and seeking to shape outcomes; INFORMATION – collecting as much knowledge as possible before committing to a choice; COLLABORATION – partnering with others to understand what's unfolding; and RELATIONSHIPS – forging connections and leveraging social bonds to navigate uncertainty.
