Now come allegations that the show itself may have done some manipulating. One of last year's Survivor contestants, Stacey Stillman, a lawyer, has filed suit against the show's producer for allegedly orchestrating her ouster to preserve contestant Rudy Boesch. He became the show's popular, crusty oldster. CBS denies the allegations. Experts won't comment on the lawsuit.
Manipulation is one of the major theories of leadership.
Machiavelli taught us that it works. O'Toole expects a fallout from the phenomenon on those in their teens and early twenties. Those of us who teach leadership are going to have to deal with this spillover in the future. The level of manipulation by the contestants themselves has gone up , with a lot of the new players coming in with a game plan and voting strategically very quickly. The use of manipulative skills to get ahead already is alive and well in the workplace, says New York psychologist Marlin Potash.