But beneath the surface of this televised game lay a deeper story of deception and self-preservation. Crafting a careful lie about his fears, he dared to mask his true anxieties, revealing not just a contestant battling challenges, but a soul wrestling with the shadows that lurk within.
This is a hot topic in my family at the moment.
I live on an obscure little island near the UK. we have a local quiz show that’s aired on the telly that I appeared on a few years ago.
The premise of the show is that you can win prizes for doing challenges. Some of the challenges were physical, some psychological, and some requiring problem solving skills. I sailed through a lot of the physical part because I wasn’t a fat bastard back then, and the problem solving skills required a lot of maths which is my career, so I was ok there.
As for the psychological part, you had to enter a clear box ‘room’ filled with something you’re terrified of, and search through to find clues to the next part.
I thought of a believable lie before I entered the show (we had to list 5 things we were afraid of) and I put down all the things I’m *not* scared of. I listed spiders, cockroaches, snakes, scorpions, and wood lice.
I literally couldn’t care less about any of these creatures. I grew up in rural landscape and I’ve had to pretty much deal with creepy crawlies my entire life so it’s not an issue.
My actual fear is a bit more obscure and I really honestly knew I’d fail if I was put in a room with it.
When I entered the room there were cockroaches *everywhere* I was in my boxers and barefoot (which was incredibly gross I can’t lie) and had to sift through and move the cockroaches to find clues for my next challenge.
I did it in the time period ascribed to me and got through to the next part. The rest of the contestants failed.
Now, I won a pretty average car which I didn’t particularly want, so as soon as I legally could I sold it and made a nice profit since it was pretty much brand new and bought myself a rather nicer car.
I told my family this recently on a drunken night when we were all at a get together, and although everybody found it uproariously funny, my family are split into 2 camps- some people think I cheated and was ethically and morally wrong, and other people think the other contestants deserved to lose if they listed their *actual* fears.
I’m obviously in the latter category, but genuinely wondering what others think.
Conclusion
The original poster (OP) is facing a division within their family regarding an action taken years ago on a television quiz show. The conflict centers on whether the OP was ethically justified in misrepresenting their fears to successfully complete a challenge, leading to a personal profit, or if this constituted cheating against the spirit of the competition.
Considering the OP prioritized personal gain and self-preservation over strict adherence to the stated rules of the psychological challenge, should the success achieved through intentional deception be validated as clever gameplay, or is it fundamentally a breach of trust and fairness that invalidates the prize won?
Here’s how people reacted:
I am highly inclined towards saying YTA because I agree that it’s cheating and morally questionable but it’s a reality show and you were told to list your fears KNOWING full well what they would do with that information. That is a very flimsy setup at best and I don’t doubt a lot of people provide false information too in that sense. I doubt you’re walking into a den of full-hearted, honest to goodness participants there, so no… I guess I feel your actions are somewhat fair game even if underhanded.
If your real fears were things like, I don’t know, ghosts or rejection by a loved one, the producers probably would have pushed you to something juicy (and actually possible to use without breaking any laws) like bugs/spiders anyway. It’s television, not a trial.
Just out of curiosity, did it happen to say anything like ‘you must tell the truth on this form blah blah’
i have to ask though, what is your REAL fear? im curious
and did you at least ACT like you were scared of the cockroaches?
Those shows are usually bullshit anyway, editing everything together to twist people’s words and coaching people to play up things that are often outright false. I hope I’d be smart enough to do the same thing in your situation.
The whole point of the game is that everyone is honest about their fears, otherwise the whole premise is worthless and it simply becomes a test of who can find a hidden thing fastest. Cheating is wrong and you cheated.
That stated, everyone had fun and no one got hurt. So being the asshole here isn’t anywhere near as bad as the other OPs in this sub.
Honestly I bet even the show itself wouldn’t care after the fact
But at the same time I feel the quiz show should have more background checking or something?
Well done for cheating!
You cheated.
I mean, it is the smart thing to do, and you got away with it.
But you did cheat.