The Werewolf Game
Let's talk about a game called "The werewolf game". Don't worry, it's short and not an horror story.
I've seen it being shared on social media but I'm not sure people understand the depth of this game’s purpose.
What is it about and how do you play it? There are different versions... a card game, a video game or you can simply play it with a piece of paper and a pen.
It requires a group of people, with a minimum of 12 participants and an extra person who will act as the moderator. The larger the group the better. In the cards or pieces of paper are written the professions of the people of a certain village (farmer, doctor, butcher, teacher, etc), except for two, which say "werewolf".
Everyone takes a card/paper and then they have to close their eyes, except the two werewolves - only them and the moderator know who they are. Then, the moderator asks everyone to open their eyes and picks one of the players and says he/she is dead, murdered by a werewolf.
This is the set of the game and the goal is for the rest of the people to guess who the werewolf is.
To do that, people start talking among them to guess who the werewolves are. From suppositions, to wild guesses, to manipulations (depending on which version you are playing), the end goal is to identify the werewolves. Every time the group comes to a decision about who the werewolf might be, they have to name it. If they get it wrong, that player "dies".
The game ends when the players identify the two werewolves or when the game gets to the point when there are only two villagers left and two werewolves. Fun fact: most of the time, the werewolves win the game.
So, what's so special about this game? The reason why it was created and what it teaches us about information - broadly speaking.
The game was created back in the late 80's in the Soviet Union by a psychology student. His goal was to prove that an uninformed majority will always lose the battle of information against an informed minority.
Isn't it funny when people try to justify something based on what the majority does/say/think? Yet, they never seem to consider that is very unlikely that this majority is in possession of all the facts, of all the data.
This may seem like a simple game, but if you think about it, you'll see there's much more into it.
And while you give this game a thought, remember the words of Mark Twain:
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.".
image created with A.I. / © Gonçalo M. Catarino
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