Werewolf: A game of trust, deception, and chaos

A popular party game is actually a lot like what happened during COVID. Worse, it's likely the playbook being perfected for the next pandemic. Keep your eyes open.

If you’ve ever played ‘Werewolf,’ then you know its a “party game for devious people.”

If you haven’t played, here’s the lowdown: each player gets a secret role — either a werewolf or a villager. Werewolves know who each other are; villagers do not. The game has two phases:

• Nighttime: The werewolves secretly choose a villager to eliminate.

• Daytime: The villagers, who don’t know who the werewolves are, discuss, accuse, and vote to "kill" a suspected werewolf.

That’s when the deception, deduction, and cunning begin, as the villagers work to unmask and eliminate a hidden threat before it’s too late. The villagers win if they eliminate all werewolves. The werewolves just have to outnumber the villagers to win.

The game actually reveals a lot about human behavior and psychology, especially about how humans tend to react during a crisis.

1. Asymmetric Information: The Experts vs. Us

In the game, werewolves basically have insider information, while the villagers are guessing, at best. During COVID, health experts and authorities had access to the scientific data — real or fabricated — while the rest of us were left to decipher their updates and decide what was true and what wasn’t. We were guessing, hoping we didn’t make the wrong call. Meanwhile, the werewolves were in constant contact with each other.

2. Coordination and Strategy: The Government Playbook

Not dissimilar to werewolves picking off unsuspecting villagers, governments and health organizations tried to outsmart the virus (and us) with lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccines. But this only works if the villagers (the public) play along. When everyone’s on board, things run smoother. But, as we saw, getting everyone to agree is like herding cats — or like villagers trying to figure out who’s a werewolf.

3. Trust and Deception: Misinformation Galore

In the game, trust is everything. Who do you believe? Who’s lying? In real life, COVID was no different. It was crucial to trust health authorities, but they were only too happy to deceive in order to force compliance. Then came the accusations of misinformation and conspiracy theories, and soon it was impossible to know who was lying anymore. It was like having a werewolf whispering in your ear, convincing you that your fellow villager who says masks don’t work is the real enemy.

4. Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: The Guessing Game

Playing Werewolf means making decisions without having all the facts at hand, leading to wild accusations and deadly decisions. During COVID, we all became armchair epidemiologists and vaccinologists, relying on gut feelings, podcasters, and our own internet sleuthing to make choices that affected our lives and livelihoods. It was a hot mess of guessing games, and too many people hoped they weren’t making fatal mistakes.

5. Psychological Manipulation: The Battle for Minds

In the game, werewolves are at their best when they’re bluffing, persuading, and sowing doubt. During the pandemic, we saw a ton of this. Fear, incentivization, social pressure — everyone had an opinion, and some were louder (and wronger) than others. It was a mental battlefield, and the ones with the information didn’t play fair.

British television director Graham Linehan recently spoke to

Konstantin Kisin

and Francis Foster of the Triggernometry podcast about this phenomenon. “When you have hidden information, you can completely manipulate a large group of people,” he said. The clip below is a MUST WATCH:

6. Groupthink and Mass Hysteria: The Real Game-Changers

Now, here’s where things get really interesting. Werewolf is a perfect playground for groupthink and mass hysteria.

Groupthink is when individuals suppress their own doubts to maintain group harmony. Mass hysteria is when fear and panic spread like wildfire. Both phenomena lead to irrational decisions that can be downright disastrous.

During COVID, we saw groupthink in action on a global scale. People, desperate for social acceptance and fearful of isolation, often went along with the loudest voices, even if those voices were dead wrong. The desire to fit in and the fear of being ostracized led to some pretty questionable decisions, much like villagers blindly accusing others in Werewolf and sentencing them to death.

Mass hysteria also reared its ugly head, with fear leading people to make decisions that were counter to their best interests. This mirrors how, in Werewolf, a few well-placed lies by the werewolves can send the villagers into a panic, leading to chaotic and irrational decisions.

We’ve seen this before. Uninformed majorities are easily duped by informed minorities day after day. Take the tobacco industry, for example, which knowingly suppressed research on the harmful effects of smoking for decades. The public paid the price while the industry raked in the cash.

If you ever find yourself playing Werewolf, remember it’s not just a game. It’s a mini-simulation of the chaotic world we live in.

The key takeaway? Trusting the experts blindly can be just as dangerous as going with the crowd. The game reminds us that sometimes those in authority — like the werewolves — have their own agendas.

That’s why critical thinking and skepticism are essential.

In a world where misinformation can spread like wildfire and groupthink can lead to disastrous decisions, individuals must question everything, including the so-called ‘experts.’

As the eco-hysteria and bird flu fear continue ramping up, here’s some food for thought: Stay smart, stay skeptical, don’t go along to get along, and maybe, just maybe, your village will survive the night!

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