And these people are very good at playing them. Probably some will choose a new survivor as a role model, Potash says, as they did winner Richard Hatch. He capitalized on his skills as a corporate trainer. It is naive to think such behavior doesn't influence the public, says Frank Farley, past president of the American Psychological Association. This is the show of the season, and some people are going to pick up on it.
TV has enormous impact.
Survivor was very popular in the workplace, Farley adds. There were office polls on who would get voted off. Some workers would joke about who they wanted to vote out of the office. I would expect it to have some negative fallout. The effect would be subtle, says James Prochaska, a psychologist and expert on change.