And then his mouth opened up and he had these, these jaws.
Next thing I know, a sharp tongue shot out of his mouth and stabbed him right through the eye.
Can you describe who you saw?
Well, he was short, two stubby legs, little oval shaped visor, kind of round at the top…
Had a cute backpack.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
We all look like that.
What I’m interested in is his color.
What color was he?
Excuse me.
What?
His color.
What was his color?
Um, I do not see the world that way.
And I am more than a bit offended that you
would ask me a superficial question like that.
This is literally a world where we’re all
identified by our color.
Well, some of us like to think that we should
be judged on the merit of our actions and
not the color of our suits.
Maybe one day you’ll understand that.
Good day, sir.
We lost our key witness.
Let him go, boys.
Hello Internet!
Welcome to Game Theory, where the only sussy
thing is not brutally murdering that subscribe
button.
Whoa.
What are we doing here?
An among us video?!
What is this, like, 2020?
Nope.
No need to check the date on your watch page
loyal theorists.
Today we’re jumping back on to the Skeld with
a new video on everyone’s favorite multiplayer
deduction game: Amogus.
Why now of all times?
Honestly, it’s because of the new Netflix
movie Glass Onion.
There’s an Among Us joke in, like, the first
10 minutes.
Nothing like a shirtless Daniel Craig in a
bathtub to help rekindle interest in your
franchise, am I right?
And not only is among us front and center,
but for all us high IQ gamers, this short
scene actually spoils a lot of the key plot
points for the main mystery of the movie.
To find out how exactly we actually did a
short on this over on fLiM tHeOrY that you
should go check out.
Anyway, all that was enough to get me to pick
up the game once again.
And when I did, I was struck by one huge detail
that we’d overlooked in our past theories
on how to win the game, a detail that is perhaps
the highest IQ strategy of them all, the one
crucial detail that makes a massive difference
in any match that you’re playing, even before
the imposter is selected: your color.
You see every single emergency meeting you
always hear a single phrase uttered.
The iconic meme Red is Sus.
It has its own Urban Dictionary page.
It’s got its own T-shirt.
Heck, it’s even got its own 38 million view
song from the channel Shiloh & Bros
In a game that’s all about avoiding detection
and not raising suspicion.
Hearing those words is practically a death
sentence.
So of course it got my theorist cogs a’turnin.
Is red indeed sus?
While obviously the actions of the player
in the game are going to have a massive impact
on whether they’re suspected or not.
There are also a lot of subconscious variables
at play in every match.
Factors that affect the way that the game
is going to go even before the impostor is
chosen.
Appearances do matter, and that’s going to
affect everything from job interviews in the
real world to games of among us.
And color is immediately one of the first
traits that we see.
Which begs the question, is red actually the
sussiest color in Among Us?
What color is most likely to draw suspicion
if you’re the imposter?
And best of all, what color choice is going
to be the best at throwing off suspicion so
your name isn’t tossed around during the next
emergency meeting?
Strap in theorists, because I’m about to blow
this whole airlock wide open.
Now, I’m sure we’re all familiar with the
phrase never judge a book by its cover.
Right?
There’s just one problem with that.
It is fundamentally opposed to our programming
as human beings.
We are designed to make snap judgments based
on immediate appearances.
It is essentially a leftover survival instinct.
If something looks dangerous, it’s best to
avoid it for our own survival.
And one of the first factors that we’re going
to process is color.
Color psychology is the study of how colors
affect human mood and behavior.
For instance, studies have shown that white
colored pills are associated with greater
pain relief, and red pills are associated
with stronger stimulant properties.
Other studies have shown that the color red
can prompt people to react with greater speed
and force.
Something as simple as color can even affect
your performance on a test.
When college students were given one of three
colored numbers, red, green or black, and
then asked to take a simple test, those with
the red numbers scored more than 20% lower
than those presented with either the green
or black numbers.
There is a huge difference, all from witnessing
a different color prior to taking the test
on the complete other end of the spectrum.
Colors like blue have shown themselves to
have a calming effect on people.
Some studies have even shown that looking
at the color blue literally release endorphins
that help you physically calm down.
All of these very real effects happening simply
by looking at different colors.
So given that science has proven time and
again that we have both physical and mental
reactions to color, how can we use this knowledge
to our advantage in a game like Among Us?
Which color is most likely to trigger your
crew members’ suspicions?
Well, believe it or not, but one of the most
sus colors isn’t red, It’s actually yellow.
And this is backed by both science and history.
Let’s just cover the science first, shall
we?
Our eyes use two different types of photoreceptors,
rods and cones.
The rods are for vision at low levels of light.
Cones, meanwhile, are the ones that are dealing
with color.
In fact, there are actually three different
types of cones, each one with sensitivity
to a different color range.
Because two of the three have reasonably high
sensitivities in the green range.
Humans are able to process more shades of
green than any other color, but not all greens
are created equally.
When you break down our biological sensitivity
to light, our eyes work best at the light
wavelength of 555 nanometers.
That means that under normal lighting conditions,
our eyes are most sensitive to a yellowish
green color.
In other words, during an emergency meeting,
if you’re either green or yellow, you’re going
to be the one that your crewmates eyes are
naturally drawn towards.
Making matters worse is that throughout human
history, the color yellow has been associated
with feelings of deceit and betrayal.
Why?
Well, to find out, let’s just take a trip
back to 500 A.D.
when post-classical art was beginning to take
shape.
During this time period, artists were working
hard to recreate scenes from the Bible.
There was just one problem with that.
The Bible isn’t very descriptive about what
people were wearing.
That meant that the artists had to make some
creative choices.
And one trend that stuck: they dressed Judas
Iscariot, the disciple that betrayed Jesus
and ultimately caused his crucifixion, in
yellow.
This appeared in so many works of art at the
time that people just eventually began to
associate the color yellow with traitors and
liars.
In 16th century Spain, for instance, they
literally dressed those accused of heresy
in yellow capes to show their betrayal to
the Spanish Inquisition.
And the color has lived in infamy ever since.
(minion) BANANA
You see?
Don’t you just want to yeet it out of an airlock?
But then what about green?
I just talked about how green is the color
that pops the best for our eyes?
Is that a sussy color too?
No.
At first glance, it certainly feels like green
and guilt should go hand in hand.
After all, it’s the go-to color used by animation
companies to show evil magic.
Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, Rasputin and
Anastasia.
Ursula in Little Mermaid and Bruno’s fortune
telling in Encanto.
It’s a color that’s constantly associated
with treacherous villains, strange potions,
toxicity.
That said, any negative connotations of the
color are far outweighed by its natural sense
of calm.
(DHMIS) Green is not a creative colouour
Sure it might not be, but it is a relaxing
color.
In a 2020 study 39% of people said that green
made them feel relaxed and content.
Again, this is one of those primal instinct
things.
Our bodies want to be in nature.
We are programmed to eat nice green plants
because green means health and vibrancy.
It means safety.
As such, we’re naturally inclined to trust
green things more than most other colors.
So green is good and yellow is sus.
What other colors should we be on the lookout
for?
Well, in 2020, some researchers from University
College London asked over 400 people to pick
a color from a color generation website that
they associated with feelings of guilt.
Number two came in as black, and number one
was our good old buddy: Red.
Let’s just start with black.
You see black is an interesting color.
It’s naturally paired with dark emotions like
sadness, depression and fear.
It also feels dark and shadowy, as if you’re
trying to purposely hide something.
That said, it might be hiding too well.
A study of what car colors tend to get into
the most accidents showed that the riskiest
car to drive is a black car because its darker
colors make it blend in more with the surrounding
area.
So in an emergency meeting, even though Black
is paired with more negative connotations,
if you keep your mouth shut, you should be
fine.
That said, if someone does bring up your name,
be careful and play humble.
Black is actually considered to give impressions
of high authority and dominance.
Think about black belts in martial arts or
the black diamonds on ski slopes.
Both show a level of mastery and skill.
You are one of the elite.
It’s why villains wear black.
Same thing for judges.
It puts them into positions of power and authority,
which is why lawyers actually recommend that
their clients do not wear black to court because
it doesn’t give people the impression that
you’re innocent or willing to listen.
Instead, it makes you look powerful, aggressive,
and in those contexts: guilty.
Something that you’re also looking to avoid
in an emergency meeting.
Which now brings us back to where this whole
question first started.
Red.
How sus is red?
Well, in addition to being highly associated
with guilt like black and being a bright,
visible color like yellow, red has a few other
things that are working against it.
First, red is obviously the color of danger
and warnings.
Like I mentioned at the top of the episode,
seeing red makes you perform worse on tests.
Red can also cause heart rates to rise and
blood pressures to increase.
All of these things are going to be working
against your ability to convince others that
you’re innocent.
But what deals red another killing blow is
the psychological phenomenon called the recency
effect.
If it wasn’t obvious, the recency effect is
about how humans remember the most recent
information they’re presented with best.
A Harvard University study showed that approximately
four pieces of information can be held in
short term memory at a given time.
This is because most information in short
term memory only lasts between 15 and 30 seconds,
meaning that people are going to tend to rely
more heavily on the last few things they’ve
seen when making a decision.
How’s that at all related to among us?
Well, both the emergency meeting button and
the animation it creates use the color red,
which immediately gets people thinking about
that color in a negative and suspicious light.
Red is the color on the top of everyone’s
mind going into the meeting because it’s the
one that they literally just saw flash across
the screen.
But the final nail in Red’s coffin, the psychological
effect of priming.
Priming is when you expose the brain to something,
which then influences how you react to something
else.
Probably best explained through an example:
if I show you these three words; noodle, bowl,
stew.
And then I ask you to complete this word S__P
what do you think you’re going to say?
Science shows that you’re most likely to see
the word “soup” over the other completely
acceptable answer of “soap”.
Because I’ve already activated a bunch of
words in your brain around the idea of soup:
Noodle, bowl, stew.
Your brain has been primed to think about
soup.
If I had done the exact opposite and said;
bath, bubble, shampoo.
Now I’m able to switch your brain’s priming
and you would have been more likely to have
thought “soup” first.
It could also be something as simple as saying
the phrase “I’ve always subscribed to the
belief that soup is better than stew.”
By saying the word “subscribe”, I’ve actually
primed you for that idea so that later in
the video, when I ask you to subscribe, you’re
more likely to do it.
Anyway, how does any of this apply to Among
Us?
Well, Red is front and center in the game’s
artwork.
He’s the icon for the game on Twitter.
He is the first color that people think of
when they think of characters from this game.
And not only is he the most prominent, he’s
also the most likely to be visualized as the
impostor in all the marketing.
Take a look at their holiday merch page.
The first thing you see is red as the impostor
with fangs and a long tongue.
There are two T-shirts with red having an
imposter shadow or holding a knife.
Heck, the official among us VR page on Steam
has red standing over a dead crewmate telling
us to keep our mouths shut.
Everything is priming your brain to connect
the idea of “red” and “imposter” so
that when the time comes to suggest who to
yeet out of the airlock, red is always going
to be the one that people pay attention to
and throw under the bus.
So if your goal when you become the imposter
is to win, the best thing to do is start steering
clear of red, black and yellow.
All of this being said, what color should
you be picking if you don’t want to immediately
be called out?
Well, there are two routes depending on your
gaming style.
If you’re an experienced player who wants
to be involved in the emergency meetings,
choose Blue.
Not only does the color blue release relaxation
endorphins into the brain.
It’s also the color that science repeatedly
shows is the most closely associated with
trustworthiness.
There is, however, one more solution that
can keep you out of trouble, and that’s by
staying out of the minds of your fellow players.
In 2021, the game updated to add six more
colors to the roster.
Maroon, rose, coral, gray, tan and banana.
(Minion) BANANA!
No, stop it.
Now, Based on everything we’ve talked about
today, any of these could be a winning choice.
Why?
Because their strength is the exact opposite
of red’s weakness.
While Red is the poster child for all things
among us.
None of these new colors have really seen
the light of day, and they’re played significantly
less than any of the primary colors.
In 2021 Innersloth released their statistics
around the most and least played colors.
Red, black, white and Rose were the top four,
while gray, maroon, brown and tan were rounding
out the bottom.
Banana and coral, meanwhile, were mixed into
the lower middle.
In short, all that means is that these new
colors aren’t primed for anything.
And because they’re not bright primary colors,
they don’t come with strong, prepackaged emotional
connotations.
Pastels are just softer colors, and as such,
they evoke softer emotions.
They’re light and delicate.
There are the supports rather than the leads.
In meetings you want people to focus on the
big, loud orange guy in the corner, not the
little old cream colored you staying quietly
off to the side.
Tan, for instance, being a lighter version
of Brown gives a sense of dependability and
stability and in design is used more as a
background color.
It’s unassuming, which is perfect when you
don’t want people to start thinking about
what you’ve been doing in the game.
Meanwhile, Gray is your other best choice.
It’s also a pale color, but unlike banana
and tan, it doesn’t evoke feelings of anything
really.
Gray is just the most blank of blank canvases.
Also, have you taken a look at the maps recently?
They all lean heavily into the grays as a
color choice, which makes a lot of sense.
It’s a lot of machinery, spaceships, space
stations, all things made out of gray metals.
Other characters will notice a green character
running past them, but gray?
Not so much.
And this holds true in real life too.
Gray cars are actually the second least likely
to be noticed on the road because they blend
in with their surroundings.
So there you have it.
If you want to give yourself the best chance
of not being called sus, your best choices
are the newer, lighter colors like gray, tan
and banana.
These are going to be doing the best job of
keeping you out of the interrogation spotlight
as long as they manage to keep your mouth
shut.
Blue, meanwhile, is a strong secondary choice,
especially if you plan on being a more active
player.
But the biggest takeaway of all is that the
memes are true.
It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Top dog of sussiness is in fact the king of
the memes: Red.
Not just because he’s popular, but because
people naturally associate red with guilt,
with warnings, and because InnerSloth has
been sabotaging red every single game from
the start with their marketing.
It’s not just a meme, it’s science and psychology.
But hey!
while it’s certainly useful to know every
possible strategy on how to kill off your
crewmates one by one.
Got to admit, it’s a little inefficient.
Imagine what sort of strategies you could
pull off if you had a whole army of impostors.
Fortunately, thanks to today’s sponsor, you
don’t have to imagine anymore.
Let me introduce you to Rise of Kingdoms,
the real time strategy game that also requires
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I know that a lot of people prefer to switch
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the
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next theory tries to sneak past me like an
imposter.
In Rise of Kingdoms, you get to build an army
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Personally, I really love using the Egyptians.
Despite their heavy use of yellow, which might
seem a bit sus, their description literally
reads strategic and undoubtedly sophisticated,
amazing craftsmen with innovative weapons
and technology.
which got to admit right up my alley.
The more science, the better.
So it seems like the perfect match, right?
Plus, you can keep upgrading your armies over
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This time, the Roman army won’t succeed in
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And that’s not all.
The level of thought that you put into the
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You also have to think about the civilization
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You get to design and protect the cities that
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Tell him Team Theorist sent you.
And let’s build the biggest alliance that
this game has ever known.
I’ll see out on the battlefield.
And as always my friends.
Remember, it’s just a theory A GAME THEORY!
Thanks for watching.
Also, Thanks for subscribing.
The Skeld with a new video on everyone’s favorite multiplayer
And then his mouth opened up and he had these, these jaws.
Next thing I know, a sharp tongue shot out of his mouth and stabbed him right through the eye.
Can you describe who you saw?
Well, he was short, two stubby legs, little oval shaped visor, kind of round at the top…
Had a cute backpack.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
We all look like that.
What I’m interested in is his color.
What color was he?
Excuse me.
What?
His color.
What was his color?
Um, I do not see the world that way.
And I am more than a bit offended that you
would ask me a superficial question like that.
This is literally a world where we’re all
identified by our color.
Well, some of us like to think that we should
be judged on the merit of our actions and
not the color of our suits.
Maybe one day you’ll understand that.
Good day, sir.
We lost our key witness.
Let him go, boys.
Hello Internet!
Welcome to Game Theory, where the only sussy
thing is not brutally murdering that subscribe
button.
Whoa.
What are we doing here?
An among us video?!
What is this, like, 2020?
Nope.
No need to check the date on your watch page
loyal theorists.
Today we’re jumping back on to the Skeld with
a new video on everyone’s favorite multiplayer
deduction game: Amogus.
Why now of all times?
Honestly, it’s because of the new Netflix
movie Glass Onion.
There’s an Among Us joke in, like, the first
10 minutes.
Nothing like a shirtless Daniel Craig in a
bathtub to help rekindle interest in your
franchise, am I right?
And not only is among us front and center,
but for all us high IQ gamers, this short
scene actually spoils a lot of the key plot
points for the main mystery of the movie.
To find out how exactly we actually did a
short on this over on fLiM tHeOrY that you
should go check out.
Anyway, all that was enough to get me to pick
up the game once again.
And when I did, I was struck by one huge detail
that we’d overlooked in our past theories
on how to win the game, a detail that is perhaps
the highest IQ strategy of them all, the one
crucial detail that makes a massive difference
in any match that you’re playing, even before
the imposter is selected: your color.
You see every single emergency meeting you
always hear a single phrase uttered.
The iconic meme Red is Sus.
It has its own Urban Dictionary page.
It’s got its own T-shirt.
Heck, it’s even got its own 38 million view
song from the channel Shiloh & Bros
In a game that’s all about avoiding detection
and not raising suspicion.
Hearing those words is practically a death
sentence.
So of course it got my theorist cogs a’turnin.
Is red indeed sus?
While obviously the actions of the player
in the game are going to have a massive impact
on whether they’re suspected or not.
There are also a lot of subconscious variables
at play in every match.
Factors that affect the way that the game
is going to go even before the impostor is
chosen.
Appearances do matter, and that’s going to
affect everything from job interviews in the
real world to games of among us.
And color is immediately one of the first
traits that we see.
Which begs the question, is red actually the
sussiest color in Among Us?
What color is most likely to draw suspicion
if you’re the imposter?
And best of all, what color choice is going
to be the best at throwing off suspicion so
your name isn’t tossed around during the next
emergency meeting?
Strap in theorists, because I’m about to blow
this whole airlock wide open.
Now, I’m sure we’re all familiar with the
phrase never judge a book by its cover.
Right?
There’s just one problem with that.
It is fundamentally opposed to our programming
as human beings.
We are designed to make snap judgments based
on immediate appearances.
It is essentially a leftover survival instinct.
If something looks dangerous, it’s best to
avoid it for our own survival.
And one of the first factors that we’re going
to process is color.
Color psychology is the study of how colors
affect human mood and behavior.
For instance, studies have shown that white
colored pills are associated with greater
pain relief, and red pills are associated
with stronger stimulant properties.
Other studies have shown that the color red
can prompt people to react with greater speed
and force.
Something as simple as color can even affect
your performance on a test.
When college students were given one of three
colored numbers, red, green or black, and
then asked to take a simple test, those with
the red numbers scored more than 20% lower
than those presented with either the green
or black numbers.
There is a huge difference, all from witnessing
a different color prior to taking the test
on the complete other end of the spectrum.
Colors like blue have shown themselves to
have a calming effect on people.
Some studies have even shown that looking
at the color blue literally release endorphins
that help you physically calm down.
All of these very real effects happening simply
by looking at different colors.
So given that science has proven time and
again that we have both physical and mental
reactions to color, how can we use this knowledge
to our advantage in a game like Among Us?
Which color is most likely to trigger your
crew members’ suspicions?
Well, believe it or not, but one of the most
sus colors isn’t red, It’s actually yellow.
And this is backed by both science and history.
Let’s just cover the science first, shall
we?
Our eyes use two different types of photoreceptors,
rods and cones.
The rods are for vision at low levels of light.
Cones, meanwhile, are the ones that are dealing
with color.
In fact, there are actually three different
types of cones, each one with sensitivity
to a different color range.
Because two of the three have reasonably high
sensitivities in the green range.
Humans are able to process more shades of
green than any other color, but not all greens
are created equally.
When you break down our biological sensitivity
to light, our eyes work best at the light
wavelength of 555 nanometers.
That means that under normal lighting conditions,
our eyes are most sensitive to a yellowish
green color.
In other words, during an emergency meeting,
if you’re either green or yellow, you’re going
to be the one that your crewmates eyes are
naturally drawn towards.
Making matters worse is that throughout human
history, the color yellow has been associated
with feelings of deceit and betrayal.
Why?
Well, to find out, let’s just take a trip
back to 500 A.D.
when post-classical art was beginning to take
shape.
During this time period, artists were working
hard to recreate scenes from the Bible.
There was just one problem with that.
The Bible isn’t very descriptive about what
people were wearing.
That meant that the artists had to make some
creative choices.
And one trend that stuck: they dressed Judas
Iscariot, the disciple that betrayed Jesus
and ultimately caused his crucifixion, in
yellow.
This appeared in so many works of art at the
time that people just eventually began to
associate the color yellow with traitors and
liars.
In 16th century Spain, for instance, they
literally dressed those accused of heresy
in yellow capes to show their betrayal to
the Spanish Inquisition.
And the color has lived in infamy ever since.
(minion) BANANA
You see?
Don’t you just want to yeet it out of an airlock?
But then what about green?
I just talked about how green is the color
that pops the best for our eyes?
Is that a sussy color too?
No.
At first glance, it certainly feels like green
and guilt should go hand in hand.
After all, it’s the go-to color used by animation
companies to show evil magic.
Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, Rasputin and
Anastasia.
Ursula in Little Mermaid and Bruno’s fortune
telling in Encanto.
It’s a color that’s constantly associated
with treacherous villains, strange potions,
toxicity.
That said, any negative connotations of the
color are far outweighed by its natural sense
of calm.
(DHMIS) Green is not a creative colouour
Sure it might not be, but it is a relaxing
color.
In a 2020 study 39% of people said that green
made them feel relaxed and content.
Again, this is one of those primal instinct
things.
Our bodies want to be in nature.
We are programmed to eat nice green plants
because green means health and vibrancy.
It means safety.
As such, we’re naturally inclined to trust
green things more than most other colors.
So green is good and yellow is sus.
What other colors should we be on the lookout
for?
Well, in 2020, some researchers from University
College London asked over 400 people to pick
a color from a color generation website that
they associated with feelings of guilt.
Number two came in as black, and number one
was our good old buddy: Red.
Let’s just start with black.
You see black is an interesting color.
It’s naturally paired with dark emotions like
sadness, depression and fear.
It also feels dark and shadowy, as if you’re
trying to purposely hide something.
That said, it might be hiding too well.
A study of what car colors tend to get into
the most accidents showed that the riskiest
car to drive is a black car because its darker
colors make it blend in more with the surrounding
area.
So in an emergency meeting, even though Black
is paired with more negative connotations,
if you keep your mouth shut, you should be
fine.
That said, if someone does bring up your name,
be careful and play humble.
Black is actually considered to give impressions
of high authority and dominance.
Think about black belts in martial arts or
the black diamonds on ski slopes.
Both show a level of mastery and skill.
You are one of the elite.
It’s why villains wear black.
Same thing for judges.
It puts them into positions of power and authority,
which is why lawyers actually recommend that
their clients do not wear black to court because
it doesn’t give people the impression that
you’re innocent or willing to listen.
Instead, it makes you look powerful, aggressive,
and in those contexts: guilty.
Something that you’re also looking to avoid
in an emergency meeting.
Which now brings us back to where this whole
question first started.
Red.
How sus is red?
Well, in addition to being highly associated
with guilt like black and being a bright,
visible color like yellow, red has a few other
things that are working against it.
First, red is obviously the color of danger
and warnings.
Like I mentioned at the top of the episode,
seeing red makes you perform worse on tests.
Red can also cause heart rates to rise and
blood pressures to increase.
All of these things are going to be working
against your ability to convince others that
you’re innocent.
But what deals red another killing blow is
the psychological phenomenon called the recency
effect.
If it wasn’t obvious, the recency effect is
about how humans remember the most recent
information they’re presented with best.
A Harvard University study showed that approximately
four pieces of information can be held in
short term memory at a given time.
This is because most information in short
term memory only lasts between 15 and 30 seconds,
meaning that people are going to tend to rely
more heavily on the last few things they’ve
seen when making a decision.
How’s that at all related to among us?
Well, both the emergency meeting button and
the animation it creates use the color red,
which immediately gets people thinking about
that color in a negative and suspicious light.
Red is the color on the top of everyone’s
mind going into the meeting because it’s the
one that they literally just saw flash across
the screen.
But the final nail in Red’s coffin, the psychological
effect of priming.
Priming is when you expose the brain to something,
which then influences how you react to something
else.
Probably best explained through an example:
if I show you these three words; noodle, bowl,
stew.
And then I ask you to complete this word S__P
what do you think you’re going to say?
Science shows that you’re most likely to see
the word “soup” over the other completely
acceptable answer of “soap”.
Because I’ve already activated a bunch of
words in your brain around the idea of soup:
Noodle, bowl, stew.
Your brain has been primed to think about
soup.
If I had done the exact opposite and said;
bath, bubble, shampoo.
Now I’m able to switch your brain’s priming
and you would have been more likely to have
thought “soup” first.
It could also be something as simple as saying
the phrase “I’ve always subscribed to the
belief that soup is better than stew.”
By saying the word “subscribe”, I’ve actually
primed you for that idea so that later in
the video, when I ask you to subscribe, you’re
more likely to do it.
Anyway, how does any of this apply to Among
Us?
Well, Red is front and center in the game’s
artwork.
He’s the icon for the game on Twitter.
He is the first color that people think of
when they think of characters from this game.
And not only is he the most prominent, he’s
also the most likely to be visualized as the
impostor in all the marketing.
Take a look at their holiday merch page.
The first thing you see is red as the impostor
with fangs and a long tongue.
There are two T-shirts with red having an
imposter shadow or holding a knife.
Heck, the official among us VR page on Steam
has red standing over a dead crewmate telling
us to keep our mouths shut.
Everything is priming your brain to connect
the idea of “red” and “imposter” so
that when the time comes to suggest who to
yeet out of the airlock, red is always going
to be the one that people pay attention to
and throw under the bus.
So if your goal when you become the imposter
is to win, the best thing to do is start steering
clear of red, black and yellow.
All of this being said, what color should
you be picking if you don’t want to immediately
be called out?
Well, there are two routes depending on your
gaming style.
If you’re an experienced player who wants
to be involved in the emergency meetings,
choose Blue.
Not only does the color blue release relaxation
endorphins into the brain.
It’s also the color that science repeatedly
shows is the most closely associated with
trustworthiness.
There is, however, one more solution that
can keep you out of trouble, and that’s by
staying out of the minds of your fellow players.
In 2021, the game updated to add six more
colors to the roster.
Maroon, rose, coral, gray, tan and banana.
(Minion) BANANA!
No, stop it.
Now, Based on everything we’ve talked about
today, any of these could be a winning choice.
Why?
Because their strength is the exact opposite
of red’s weakness.
While Red is the poster child for all things
among us.
None of these new colors have really seen
the light of day, and they’re played significantly
less than any of the primary colors.
In 2021 Innersloth released their statistics
around the most and least played colors.
Red, black, white and Rose were the top four,
while gray, maroon, brown and tan were rounding
out the bottom.
Banana and coral, meanwhile, were mixed into
the lower middle.
In short, all that means is that these new
colors aren’t primed for anything.
And because they’re not bright primary colors,
they don’t come with strong, prepackaged emotional
connotations.
Pastels are just softer colors, and as such,
they evoke softer emotions.
They’re light and delicate.
There are the supports rather than the leads.
In meetings you want people to focus on the
big, loud orange guy in the corner, not the
little old cream colored you staying quietly
off to the side.
Tan, for instance, being a lighter version
of Brown gives a sense of dependability and
stability and in design is used more as a
background color.
It’s unassuming, which is perfect when you
don’t want people to start thinking about
what you’ve been doing in the game.
Meanwhile, Gray is your other best choice.
It’s also a pale color, but unlike banana
and tan, it doesn’t evoke feelings of anything
really.
Gray is just the most blank of blank canvases.
Also, have you taken a look at the maps recently?
They all lean heavily into the grays as a
color choice, which makes a lot of sense.
It’s a lot of machinery, spaceships, space
stations, all things made out of gray metals.
Other characters will notice a green character
running past them, but gray?
Not so much.
And this holds true in real life too.
Gray cars are actually the second least likely
to be noticed on the road because they blend
in with their surroundings.
So there you have it.
If you want to give yourself the best chance
of not being called sus, your best choices
are the newer, lighter colors like gray, tan
and banana.
These are going to be doing the best job of
keeping you out of the interrogation spotlight
as long as they manage to keep your mouth
shut.
Blue, meanwhile, is a strong secondary choice,
especially if you plan on being a more active
player.
But the biggest takeaway of all is that the
memes are true.
It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Top dog of sussiness is in fact the king of
the memes: Red.
Not just because he’s popular, but because
people naturally associate red with guilt,
with warnings, and because InnerSloth has
been sabotaging red every single game from
the start with their marketing.
It’s not just a meme, it’s science and psychology.
But hey!
while it’s certainly useful to know every
possible strategy on how to kill off your
crewmates one by one.
Got to admit, it’s a little inefficient.
Imagine what sort of strategies you could
pull off if you had a whole army of impostors.
Fortunately, thanks to today’s sponsor, you
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Personally, I really love using the Egyptians.
Despite their heavy use of yellow, which might
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which got to admit right up my alley.
The more science, the better.
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This time, the Roman army won’t succeed in
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You get to design and protect the cities that
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Tell him Team Theorist sent you.
And let’s build the biggest alliance that
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I’ll see out on the battlefield.
And as always my friends.
Remember, it’s just a theory A GAME THEORY!
Thanks for watching.
Also, Thanks for subscribing.
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