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If you were as hooked on Squid Game as I was, then you probably had a plan for how you’d breeze through the deadly games.
From a fatal game of tug of war to the brutally simple red–light–green–light, these games seemed deceptively simple from the comfort of our sofas.
But, would you really have what it takes to survive?
With the next season of Squid Game: The Challenge just around the corner, I set out to see if I have the nerves of steel needed to win big.
Although a secret island filled with nightmarish children’s games wasn’t within the budget, we were able to find the next best thing – Squid Game: The Experience in London.
To make this a true experiment, I was fitted with a palm sensor that captured electro–dermal activity – the same technology that’s used in lie detectors.
These devices capture the intensity of emotional arousal, essentially revealing just how terrifying each game really was.
And even though there wasn’t any real risk of death, the data shows that I probably wouldn’t have lasted long.
To see if we would survive Squid Game (right) and its deadly challenges, Daily Mail sent science reporter Wiliam Hunter to Squid Game: The Experience in London (left)
To see how well we would survive Squid Games challenges, each contestant was fitted with a device that measures skin conductivity. This is the same technology that is used for lie detector tests
The experiment
To actually see how well I was able to handle each of the Squid Game challenges, the other challengers and I were fitted with devices to measure emotional impact.
These palm–mounted sensors use two electrodes to measure the conductivity of the skin, which is strongly influenced by changes in the body’s fight or flight system, known as the sympathetic nervous system.
Essentially, when you become emotionally aroused, you get sweaty palms, and this produces a spike in electrical conductivity.
The important thing is that this isn’t something you can consciously control, so it’s a really reliable objective measure of someone’s emotions.
This is why the same technology is used in the classic polygraph lie detector test.
So, with a sensor strapped to my hand, we would be able to tell exactly where my sympathetic nervous system was most active, revealing which games I found easy and which had me fighting for my life.
The Squid Game challenge
As the challengers entered the ‘Bunk Room’, we were given a briefing about the challenges ahead, and the tension began to rise
This graph shows the ’emotional impact score’, a measure of the body’s unconscious response to fear and excitement. As we lined up to start, my body’s sympathetic nervous system activated the ‘fight or flight’ response, and the activity spiked
From before the first game even started, it was already clear I might not have the nerves of steel needed to make it through Squid Game.
As the games began, we were led into a room filled with bunk beds, where an actor dressed as the recruiter from Squid Game prepared us for what would lie ahead.
Immediately, the polygraph meter started to spike as the anticipation began to build.
And by the doors opened, and we walked and stepped through into the first challenge room, the data shows that my fight or flight system was well and truly kicking in.
Our first challenge was a variation on the ‘hopscotch’ glass bridge from season one of the show.
We were briefly shown a pattern of red and green tiles on the floor and had to walk through without stepping on a single red tile.
To make matters worse, thanks to an odd number of competitors, I would have to undertake the task by myself with a group of total strangers watching my every move.
Blame it on the pressure or my sieve–like brain, but after just a few steps, I had no idea where the next safe tile could be, and it wasn’t long before I made a fatal mistake.
The first game was a version of the ‘Hopscotch’ bridge from season one of Squid Game. Players had to memorise the safe pattern of tiles, and walk across without stepping on a red panel
Crossing the bridge produced a few big spikes of emotional intensity, which normally helps promote memory formation
While the whole experience was equally thrilling and mortifying, it appears that my nerves might have been contagious.
The electro–dermal activity for the 20 or so people in the room with me at the time shows a clear spike as I stepped out to play.
Looking back over the data, it was quite comforting to know that everyone else might have been just as nervous as I was in that moment.
From there, we moved through more games from season one of Squid Game.
These included marbles, a bit of a dull spot according to the sensor data, and a thrilling game of tug–of–war that, unfortunately, jogged the sensors so much that the data is largely scrambled.
However, we soon came to the highlight of the experience: Red light, green light.
The rules are simple: run forward when the light turns green, freeze when the right turns red, and try to cross the line before the time runs out.
In one of the most memorable moments from the show, Squid Game shocked audiences by adding a deadly twist to this classic children’s game.
A game of marbles, without any of the deadly consequences from the Netflix show, proved to be a low point of emotional intensity
The data shows very low levels of skin conductivity during the marbles game, which suggests the process was not terribly intense
Rather than returning to the start, anyone caught moving during a red light was shot.
However, for rather obvious reasons, the Squid Game Experience wasn’t quite able to replicate this particular aspect of the show.
This did lead to the slightly jarring realisation that, without the deadly twist, we were simply a bunch of adults playing a children’s game.
Yet, despite the inherent silliness of the scene, the polygraph data shows that everyone was deadly serious.
As the first green light flicked on, our emotional impact peaked at the highest point of the entire evening – spiking 3.5 times higher than average.
In fact, there were clear spikes in dermal conductivity every time the green light ‘Green Light!’ was called, with most well over twice the average intensity.
And as I– this time due to my own incompetence – once again found myself alone in front of the crowd, there was another massive spike in emotional intensity.
More spikes and troughs of intensity followed as we went into the finale in what was essentially a game of musical chairs.
The peak intensity of the experience was recorded during a game of ‘Red Light Green Light’. Just like in the show (left), players had to run when the lights turned green, and stay perfectly still when the lights turned red
But by this point, it was more than clear that I wasn’t cut out to be a Squid Game champion.
Not only had I, rather embarrassingly, come dead last in every single game, but my polygraph data showed that I was a nervous wreck.
The constant spikes in dermal conductivity show that my sympathetic nervous system was working overtime to keep me focused.
While this might not be good news for me, it is great news for the designers of the Squid Game Experience.
Joe Timson, founder of the company behind the emotional tracking technology, CAVEA, explained that memory formation is strongly associated with peaks in emotional intensity.
People don’t tend to remember the entirety of an event or experience, just those moments of peak intensity.
Now, a few weeks out from the challenge, I can still look at the data and vividly remember the moments that caused each of those big spikes.
So, although I might not have the nerves to survive Squid Game, it at least made for a memorable experience.
During Red Light Green Light, emotional intensity peaked at 3.5 times the average. This suggests that our fight–or–flight reflexes were working overtime, despite it only being a game
What’s the verdict?
At £37 for an adult or £26 for under-16s, Squid Game: The Experience is a surprisingly good amount of entertainment for your money.
Each room is packed with references to the show, and the experience’s design has some brilliant attention to detail that fans of the show will love.
And even for someone like myself who barely remembers watching a few episodes back in 2021, the games themselves are more than enough fun.
The games do only last for about an hour, so even though there is a bar and gift shop on site, don’t expect a full day of activities.
However, for big fans of Squid Game or anyone looking for a good way to spend a rainy afternoon, this is definitely an extremely fun experience.
How do lie detectors work?
A person receiving a lie detector test (file picture)
In police investigations – and often when someone applies for a job when national security can be compromised – a suspect or applicant will be subjected to a lie detector or polygraph test. They are now routine for U.S. government jobs with the FBI or CIA. The goal of a lie detector is to see if the person is telling the truth or lying when answering certain questions.
When a person takes a polygraph test, four to six sensors are attached to him. A polygraph is a machine in which the multiple (‘poly’) signals from the sensors are recorded on a single strip of moving paper (‘graph). The sensors usually record a person’s breathing rate, pulse, blood pressure and perspiration. They can also sometimes measure someone’s arm and leg movements.
When the polygraph test starts, the questioner asks three or four simple questions to establish what normal signals are for the person being investigated. Throughout questioning, all of the person’s signals are recorded on the moving paper.
Both during and after the test, a polygraph examiner can look at the graphs and can see whether the vital signs changed significantly on any of the questions. In general, a significant change – such as a faster heartrate, higher blood pressure or increased perspiration indicates that the person is lying.
But critics say that it easy to beat lie detectors – simply by ‘lying with your body as well as your words’. If a person substantially increases their respiratory rate, blood pressure and sweat level while answering standard questions, their answers to other questions (whether they are truths or falsehoods) will seem true.
This was done in the film ‘Ocean’s Eleven’, and is usually achieved by pressing down on a sharp object such as a drawing pin during routine questioning. This will cause more perspiration or a faster heart beat which in turn bamboozles the lie detector.
But while this countermeasure (if properly applied) can be effective, polygraphers have developed counter-countermeasures for it – the simplest being to simply make the subject remove his shoes.
While both sides are in competition like this, the debate over the reliability of lie detectors continues. That is especially the case when people who are mentally ill are subjected to polygraph tests – because they do not know or cannot express the truth, the argument goes, they will hardly likely to be exposed as liars.
Sources: Howstuffworks.com and Livescience.com
