The Psychology of Among Us

To say that 2020 has been a turbulent year would be the understatement of the century. We’ve had fearful times, hopeful times, and even bizarre times. Among the bizarre times is the story of how a little indie game rose up to win multiple prestigious awards and capture the hearts of many.

This game is Among Us, a game of deception and betrayal where impostors infiltrate a group of crewmates and try to sabotage their attempt to escape. In a year where wholesome games helped bring us all together, it’s ironic that one of the year’s most popular games has us yelling at and sabotaging one another while controlling little beans. And to make matters even more curious, Among Us didn’t even release in 2020: the game released in 2018 and received unprecedented success only this year.

So why? And how? In this article, I will use psychology to explain why Among Us rose to prominence this year. I will also use evidence to explain some social, cognitive and mental health benefits that I feel Among Us can bring to players.

As usual, there will be a summary at the bottom if you do not wish to read everything. Now, let’s begin!

Contents

1. Those Who Bean Together…
2. Bean Theatre
3. Mischievous Beans
4. Beans into Memes
5. Big Brain Beans
6. Summary
7. References

Those Who Bean Together…

As promised, an aim of this article is to explain why exactly a game from 2018 rose to prominence in 2020. While I think that nearly all of the factors in this article contribute to the game’s success, I think an important factor to consider is how easy it is for Among Us to bring us together.

As someone who loves video games and the people who play them, getting together to play video games can be a bit of a nightmare. I sadly can’t play Tekken 7 with some of my good friends because we play on separate gaming platforms. Hell, there are games that I can’t play with my own fiancé because of our different platform preferences.

Among Us is an incredibly accessible game, both in terms of acquiring it and playing it. The game is free to play on Android and iOS devices and can be bought for a small price on both Steam and the Nintendo Switch. There are few controls to the game, there is crossplay between all of the versions, and you can easily play the game on the same laptop you use for school or work. This makes it easy for a group of friends to get together and play the game.

After a year filled with lockdowns and keeping our distance from our loved ones, it seems almost redundant to talk about how Among Us lets us safely and humorously spend time with our friends while maintaining physical distance. Instead, I would like to focus on the potential for Among Us to widen our social circles.

A piece of gaming research that always delights me to share is a study conducted by Cole and Griffiths (2007). Around 75% of those who took part in the study said they felt they had made good friends from playing video games online. These new friendships would bloom into beautiful things, with 43% of these online friendships culminating in offline meetings, and 30% of them even transformed into romantic relationships!

Another interesting component of this study relates to the quality of these friendships: nearly half of participants said they found their online gaming friendships comparable to offline friends, and 39% reported that they talked to their online friends about mental health difficulties that they are too afraid to discuss offline.

The results of this study reflect my own experiences with Among Us. A few of my friends started a server on the chat application Discord to play Among Us. Those friends invited their friends, people found common interests, and now the server is a hub for people to play games together, celebrate birthdays together, and even to get support for problems. My experience may even be shared by others: an analysis conducted by Apptopia found that downloads of Discord received a major boost alongside the increasing popularity of Among Us. This means that people may be creating and joining new servers where people can integrate and share their social networks.

It is delightful to think that in such lonely times, Among Us is helping us to meet new people to share new gaming experiences with.

Bean Theatre

One of my favourite clips from the TV show Parks and Recreation is the Coffee Pot Mystery. It is a fascinating one minute of television where a group of office co-workers try to figure out who broke the office coffee pot. There’s the Goody Two-Shoes who offers to pay for it despite not breaking it, the person who throws out wild accusations with zero evidence, the person who coldly refutes claims with evidence, the person who explodes upon being accused, and then the ultimate betrayal of the calm and reasonable manager being the destroyer of the coffee pot all along. This clip mirrors the group dynamic of Among Us so well that it has been made into multiple parody videos, with the most popular video sitting at over one million views.

I described the clip as ‘fascinating’ as I found it interesting to watch different personality types respond to conflict, and how these personalities and responses ultimately bounced off one another. This is a very interesting one minute of television, but it’s also interesting to think that the Coffee Pot Mystery is being played out infinitely in game streaming platforms.

Among Us has seen a lot of success on Twitch: as of 17th December 2020, an average of 97,217 people per month have racked up an average of 66.48 million monthly viewing hours of Among Us in the last six months (TwitchTracker, 2020). I think the success of Among Us on Twitch primarily relates to two things.

The first thing is the Coffee Pot Mystery Effect. A common misconception when it comes to streaming is that people will only tune into a streamer playing one particular game, but the evidence doesn’t seem to suggest that. A study by Deng et al. (2015) found that over a 10-month period, around 70% of the top streamers on Twitch played an average of ten different games.

This means that someone may be interested in seeing a streamer play Among Us because they are familiar with their personality and are interested in seeing how they respond to the pressure of the game. Will they be cunning? Will they try to throw others under the bus? Will they explode when wrongfully accused? Each game is a brand new Coffee Pot Mystery that the viewer gets to watch unfold in front of them. If the viewer hasn’t already begun playing Among Us, watching their favourite streamer enjoying the game may encourage them to try it out, meaning that this enjoyment can act as a type of social transmission of the game.

The second thing involves the comedic aspect of Among Us as a lot of funny things can happen in the game. You might find that someone is a terrible liar who says the most ludicrous things when they’re accused. You might see an impostor successfully cast doubt on an innocent crewmate and get them voted out of the game. I’m glad that I had push-to-talk enabled when playing Among Us as a lot of the time I was cackling at the end of a voting round.

Back in my article on The Psychology of Twitch, I shared a story of just how contagious laughter can be: three students at a boarding school in Tanzania had a laughing fit that spread so widely that 14 schools in the area had to temporarily close (Provine, 2001). When we watch someone laughing, neurons in the frontal cortex of our brain (labelled ‘mirror neurons’) encourage us to empathise with them and mirror their actions, resulting in our own laughter (Marci et al., 2004; Rizzolatti & Sinigaglisa, 2008; Rifkin, 2009). Sometimes when I’m feeling down, I like to watch a compilation of the day my favourite streamer kept having giggle fits and couldn’t keep it together. Despite the video being years old at this point, it never fails to reduce me to tears laughing.

As meta as it sounds, laughing at a streamer laughing has mental health benefits. The simple act of laughing releases neurochemicals such as dopamine, serotonin and endorphins that improve our mood, help us to chill out, and can even reduce our pain (Harvard Medical School, 2010). So if you feel like you’re being unproductive for sitting back and giggling at an Among Us stream or playing the game yourself, just know that you’re probably taking care of your own wellbeing while doing so.

Mischievous Beans

In the year where lots of people were being creative and friendly in Animal Crossing, a game about sabotaging your friends can be a bit of a hard sell. Throughout the year, I’ve had interviews with students and journalists asking me to comment on the popularity of Among Us. One question that frequently pops up is the idea of Among Us encouraging antisocial behaviour. Similar to the violent video game debate, can practicing lying and deceit in a video game encourage deception and immoral behaviour?

Not only do I not feel that this is the case, but I feel that the mischief of Among Us is something that makes it popular. Let me explain.

In previous articles, I’ve talked about how we are little scientists from a young age who like to fill our heads with knowledge and outcomes about the world (Piaget, 1936; Gredebäck et al., 2018). However, something called Theory of Mind begins to form around the age of two. This refers to the ability to take the perspective of other people and empathise with them, meaning it becomes all too real for us that our actions can have hurtful consequences (Call & Tomasello, 1998). This is why I argue that we like video game mischief – we are able to conduct little social experiments and witness the consequences of our actions without actually hurting anyone. However, the case of Among Us might be a bit more complex as we’re dealing with real people rather than video game characters, but this can also be explained.

Something interesting about Among Us is how inconsequential losing is. In other games, you might be losing something like exp, progress, or your ranking if you lose. Nothing bad really happens if you lose or get voted out in Among Us, you just chill with other people, help or hinder the crewmates as a ghost, and wait for your moment to yell “I told you so!” after your innocent self was voted out. It’s even easier for us to feel okay about screwing someone over if there’s no negative consequences to our actions, so we get to enjoy the game relatively guilt-free.

As someone who tries to live their life honestly, my first game as an impostor went so badly that it was immediately etched into the Discord server’s history. Upon getting caught and entering an emergency meeting, all I could muster was very loud laughter. An absolute litany of memes followed this about how bad of a liar I am, which brings me to my next point.

Beans into Memes

Along with streamers advertising how entertaining the game is, I think a big part of the success of Among Us relates to the memes that stem from it. Our minds can conjure up some really bizarre or blunt statements when we’re confronted or wrongfully accused, and sharing these moments with the world can lead to lots of joint laughter. In a meeting that I had discussing the psychology of Among Us with a college student, the conversation segued into sharing our favourite memes. We were no longer doctor and student in that moment, we were basically two memelords sharing laughter together.

However, I think it’s important to note that memes just aren’t something that get 20,000 retweets on Twitter. The original definition of a meme is an idea or belief that gets spread from person to person (Dawkins, 1989). A basic example of a meme is the idea that spread in my friendship group that I am an awful liar. So why is this important? Well, for two reasons.

The first reason is that the original idea of memes and what we think of when we hear the word ‘meme’ can coincide with one another. Because of the meme in my friendship group that I am a bad liar, this birthed a wave of memeposting when I actually won as an impostor.

As I described above when talking about the mental health benefits of laughter, laughing and sharing these silly memes with people is genuinely good for us. The important keyword here is sharing, which brings me to my second point.

Despite how cutthroat Among Us can be, there can be a lot of sharing both inside and outside of the game. We come to know more about our friends through playing the game. People now know I’m usually a clumsy and terrible liar. I know that one of my friends gets more relaxed and empathetic when she’s the impostor to try to hide suspicion. These are things we laugh about both inside and outside of the game, then we may share both internal group memes (e.g. about me being a bad liar) and external Among Us memes from places like Twitter.

Because of all of this frequent sharing, we’re constantly getting fed information that we belong in this social group. To use terminology from social psychology, the group of people that we like to play Among Us with could be described as the ‘ingroup’. Not only do things like sharing memes help us feel closer to those in our ingroup (Cameron, 2001), but feeling that we belong to an ingroup gives us mental health benefits such as lower depressive symptoms, improved self-esteem, and reduced levels of stress due to social support (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992; Haslam et al., 2005; Ysseldyk et al., 2018).

Despite how chaotic Among Us can be, both the internal and external group memes surrounding the game and getting closer to those we play it with can be very good for our wellbeing.

Big Brain Beans

In my very first game of Among Us, I sat back and listened as people aired their suspicions of others. After a bit of a lull in conversation, I heard it:

“Platinum, where were you?”

In my most sheepish voice, I explained that I was doing the thing with the…uh, where you swipe the card in the…uh, the room with the…things.

I learned very quickly that that is not how you do things in the world of Among Us. To play the game optimally, you need to be able to recall the tasks that you did, where you were, who you did your tasks with, who was in the area with you, who you saw running to/from you, the list goes on. To play impostor efficiently, you need to remember additional things like vent locations for quick getaways and whether tasks give a visual indication that you’re not actually doing them.

I have previously talked about how Among Us is an entertaining and mischievous game, but I also have to be honest – it can be stressful! However, not only do I think its mentally demanding nature can be an attractive feature of Among Us, but I also think that it can even be good for our brains. Let me explain.

If you sometimes struggle to remember everything that you need to in Among Us, don’t worry, it’s completely natural. This struggle relates to something called Cognitive Load Theory. Cognitive Load Theory argues that we don’t have infinite brainpower: our capacity to think about and focus on tasks is limited by our cognitive load (De Jong, 2010). So theoretically, if you’re focusing all of your attention on Among Us, you won’t have the cognitive resources available to dwell on things like current sources of anxiety in your life right now. In fact, video games can be so good at distracting us from our worries that they are used in hospitals to reduce pre-operation anxiety (Patel et al., 2006). So while Among Us can be demanding in the moment, it can grant us respite from our worries while having fun with friends.

Now I’ll explain why I think the game can be good for our brains. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten better at recognising my weaknesses. One weakness I feel that I have is a very bad working memory. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, working memory can be conceptualised as processing and/or storing information on a short-term basis for functional purposes (Cowan, 2009). For example, a customer quickly saying their 15-digit order number would require a strong working memory to process and input. Upon reflection, I think my working memory is bad simply because it doesn’t get used very often. It’s not often that I have to process and store a bunch of things in my head for short-term use, I scribble notes everywhere and my phone is filled with notes.

As you can imagine, the string of things required for an efficient game of Among Us can be a strain on our working memories. But if we go into Among Us with a bad working memory, are we destined to be bad at the game forever? The research suggests otherwise.

I mentioned that I feel that my working memory is bad due to lack of use, and this is because evidence suggests that working memory can be improved with practice and focused techniques (Andrews et al., 2011; Autin & Croizet, 2012). And there’s even better news: the world of video game research can find that gaming has benefits to our memory and our ability to process information. These benefits include improved working memory (particularly spatial working memory), a quicker attention focus on objects, better visual search performance, and more (Boot et al., 2008; Green et al., 2012; Colzato et al., 2013; Oei & Patterson, 2013).

With this in mind, I feel that my first and most recent games of Among Us were completely night and day. I was able to remember my tasks, where I was, who I was with, who I saw walking from a direction and who they were with – I genuinely surprised myself. One morning this week, I was able to keep a rotation of tasks I was supposed to do in my head without forgetting anything. I used some similar strategies that I do while playing Among Us to keep these tasks in my head, and it felt really good.

I genuinely think playing Among Us has been beneficial to my working memory, and I would love it if future research explored this idea. I emphasise the need to research this as, in order to maximise transparency, I have to disclose that research unfortunately doesn’t always find that gaming can have the memory and processing benefits listed above (e.g. Unsworth et al., 2015). If you are as fascinated by Among Us as I am and are interested in the positive effects it may bring, it may be an interesting research project for you!

Summary

• A large component of Among Us’s success may be due to how accessible it is: the game is either free or inexpensive, its controls are easy, it has crossplay, and it does not require demanding hardware. Chat applications such as Discord allow us to create servers to play with our friends, introducing the potential to integrate our social circles and have our friends meet one another. Research indicates that friendships forged from playing online games are strong, culminating in offline meetups and even romantic relationships.
• Another component of Among Us’s success may be due to the game’s popularity on streaming platforms such as Twitch. The game is incredibly interesting to watch due to the potential for personalities to clash and to witness how our favourite streamers respond to conflict. Among Us streams also have the potential for some hilarious moments which encourage us to laugh. Chilling out and laughing at an Among Us stream is great for our mental health due to the release of neurochemicals such as dopamine, serotonin and endorphins that improve our mood and relax us.
• A game designed around lying and sabotage may be a hard sell to some, and may even be accused of encouraging antisocial behaviour similar to the violent video game debate. However, the harmless mischief of Among Us may be part of its charm. Many of us don’t engage in deliberate harm of others due to our sense of empathy and desire not to hurt others, but may still be curious about how well they can pull off deceit in a fictional setting. Losing a game of Among Us is very inconsequential as there are no items or experience points to lose, so people can ethically engage in fictional mischief without hurting anyone.
• Among Us is responsible for a lot of memes online, but playing Among Us with our friends may also birth internal group memes such as someone being a terrible liar. Laughing about and sharing both of these types of memes has three mental health benefits: the benefits of laughter outlined in bullet point two; allowing us to feel closer to the people in our Among Us group; and improved self-esteem and lower stress and depressive symptoms due to feeling like we belong in a supportive friendship group.
• While Among Us can be a fun and mischievous game, it can be demanding on our brain while we remember all of the things necessary to have a decent alibi. However, this cognitive demand has two benefits to us. Firstly, something called Cognitive Load Theory argues that we have a limited capacity to focus on information. This means that if we are focused on trying to convince others of our innocence, it can provide us with respite from the worries and anxieties that we may currently experience. Secondly, Among Us is particularly demanding on a component of memory known as working memory: this involves our ability to process and/or store information in a short-term capacity for functional purposes. Evidence indicates that video games can improve working memory, and I genuinely feel that playing Among Us has improved my terrible working memory. However, I would like more research into the area before I can come to any firm conclusions.

Thank you all very much for reading! This hard work would not be possible without the support of my wonderful Patrons. I would particularly like to thank my Platinum Patrons: Albert S Calderon, Kyle T, redKheld, Dimelo ‘Derp’ Waterson, Hagbard Celine, Aprou, Austin Enright, NotGac, Shaemus, Joey Rodriguez, Marcus Lo Re-Sant, DarrenIndeed, Thomas Meszaros, Dr. Jhin, Mulgar, Tobias Svensson, Matt Demers, and RK_Rammy. Thank you!

 

References

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