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The players, though still flushed from their last challenge, waste no time. They form small groups, whispering frantically about how the votes will fall and how to protect themselves. Junior Dhanush Panjarla is pretty sure he’s safe: He has an immunity idol in his pocket.
If you’re a reality TV fan, you might already be imagining this scene taking place on a beach in Fiji or in the Australian Outback. But it’s all happening in Lawrence Hall. Here, students put their understanding of social psychology to the test, taking on the roles of players and producers in Jennifer Hirsch’s “Survivor”-style role-playing game.
The game is the culmination of the Social Psychology of Reality TV course, a semester-long exploration of how reality TV shows are made and the psychology they employ. From watching shows like “The Traitors” and “Love Island” to speaking with a casting producer, the course introduces students to a new framework for understanding concepts like first impressions, social identities and personal narratives.
As students wonder if they can trust each other in early stages of the game, they reflect on class discussions of relationship formation research. When the players are making their final case to the jury — fellow students, who have been voted out of the game — they’re leveraging routes to persuasion.
“It’s not just about the message,” Hirsch said. “It’s also about who’s receiving the message and what route to persuasion they’re going to attend to most, and who’s the best at being able to match the message to the recipient.”
Hirsch has been planning the course for years, and since its introduction in 2023, it’s become one of the Department of Psychology’s most popular offerings.
“It really was this combination of a lifetime of building the interest, a decade of thinking about the course, then being at the right place to actually do it,” said Hirsch, a teaching assistant professor.
Hirsch’s appreciation for reality television formed at a young age, watching “Big Brother” in the early 2000s. By the time she decided to study psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, it was clear to her that such social strategy shows could serve as a real-world structure for teaching concepts like group dynamics and intimacy.
That spark of an idea truly took hold when Hirsch was a PhD student at Yale University. She invited a close friend, Gabby Pascuzzi, to speak on campus about her experience playing “Survivor.” Hearing Pascuzzi describe the game as a microcosm of society inspired Hirsch to revisit the show. (Plus, at Hirsch’s urging, Pascuzzi is now studying for her own PhD in social psychology.)
As she watched with the trained eye of a psychologist and educator, she could also more clearly envision an experiential teaching opportunity. By the time Hirsch joined Pitt as a teaching assistant professor in 2022, she felt ready to pitch the unique seminar.
“This department is amazing,” Hirsch said. “They’re so supportive of their teaching faculty and so encouraging of us to develop these courses that are going to make the best learning experiences for our students.”
Head games
Hirsch calls for an end to deliberation. It’s time to vote.
But she and the student producers have a surprise — this is not a simple majority round, where the player with the most votes is eliminated. Instead, player by player, each student chooses one person to save from elimination. At the end of the line, only one player remains: Dhanush Panjarla leaves the game without a chance to play his immunity idol, rendered useless by the twist.
“When we were watching [reality shows] for entertainment, I felt like, why are they making this a big deal?” he said, smiling. “But watching in person is way more intense. Even when I haven’t been on the line, I was feeling the pain of people being eliminated.”
There are no hard feelings at all for Panjarla. The students aren’t battling for real resources or even a grade in the course. That’s by design, according to Hirsch. She also studies belonging and inclusion and says that a commitment to fostering a warm, welcoming classroom throughout the semester also extends to creating a positive gameplay experience.
“Research shows that a chilly, noninclusive classroom environment has detrimental effects on student and academic outcomes,” Hirsch said. “It leads to more of a likelihood of leaving that major. This is especially the case for folks from underrepresented or marginalized identities.”
Being a relationship scientist, Hirsch also designs the game with relationship formation in mind. For example, after-class challenges like an extensive photo scavenger hunt around Pittsburgh leverage principles of attraction — proximity, familiarity, sharing novel experiences — and encourage bonding. It seems to be working.
“After the game ended yesterday, I got multiple messages from students, unprompted, basically being like, ‘I can't even explain how much fun this was,’” Hirsch said.
“I want them to have fun, and I want them to learn,” she added. “But also, it’s about forming memories. It's just really, really rewarding to see it’s not just enjoyable for me, but it’s enjoyable for the students in ways that go above and beyond what I would have ever anticipated.”
Photography by Tom Altany