How good are you at quizzes? Go on, you can be honest. You think you’re pretty good, right? Well, you might have a superior intellect – but then again, you might just be overconfident. “This is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, which states that the majority of people tend to overestimate their abilities,” says Matt Shaw, a performance psychologist at coaching company InnerDrive.
“Interestingly, this is more pronounced in those with the lowest ability, such as inexperienced players,” says Shaw. “Experts tend to underestimate their abilities, which is sometimes called ‘the burden of expertise’.”
Knowing whether you are the type of person who is burdened with expert knowledge or likely to overegg your skills is the kind of insight that would come in handy when playing Blockbusters – the classic TV gameshow that pits a single player against a team of two students.
Recently relaunched on Comedy Central with comedian Dara Ó Briain presiding, the game sees contestants making their way across the iconic hexagon-filled game board, answering questions that begin with a particular letter of the alphabet. The format rewards general knowledge, lateral thinking, quick reactions and – in the case of the paired-up players – teamwork.
“It’s really important that you choose your thinking partner wisely,” says Robert Ritchie, who’s made a career by cultivating positive mindsets and behaviours across different types of teams.
Currently head of organisational development at the University of Salford, Ritchie says “one head is better than two” in the idea-creation stages. After that, he says, you can deliberately decide who to bring in and when. “In a quiz format, that process is accelerated. You have to have that initial moment of reaction and decision on your own, otherwise you’ll only ever be going around consensus or groupthink,” he adds. Get the right teammate and gameplay can be dazzlingly swift: just check out this pair of Cambridge students trouncing their single opponent.
Intriguingly, however, two heads are likely to be better than one even if you’re not both Blockbusting naturals. “There is a quirky phenomenon called the Köhler effect,” says Shaw. “This is when working with other people, the weaker teammate tends to elevate their performance. Not only do people work harder if their partner is outperforming them, they are also more motivated when they know that the team’s performance relies on them. This is more prominent when team members’ abilities are similar, like in a quiz.” It’s perhaps no surprise, therefore, that across the two Comedy Central series of Blockbusters, 11 out of 20 have been won by the pair – despite pairs requiring one more correct answer each round than the solo players.
Question setter Charlotte Hazzard, who runs the quiz at the historic Grapes pub in Limehouse, London, also believes that two heads are better than one. “When you’ve got two brains, you’re able to pull on a greater bank of knowledge, and pub quizzes often need quite a wide spread of general knowledge,” she says.
Knowing the information and having it ready at the right moment are two very different skills, however. Team player Philip fell foul of this when asked: “What U is something designed for both men and women?” His immediate response – underwear – was factually correct but not what the question was looking for. The word Ó Briain wanted, of course, was unisex.
There’s a reason that the first answer that comes into your head won’t necessarily win you points, according to Shaw. “Gut responses are essentially shortcuts that help us make decisions quickly and when under pressure. However, they’re not always accurate. Under stress or pressure (like in a quiz), our focus can become too narrow, meaning we stop searching for alternative answers, which can lead to mistakes,” he says.
Comedian Josh Widdicombe learned this to his cost on the celebrity edition when he buzzed in too soon on a question about West End musicals, proffering West Side Story as his W answer. This allowed professional dancer and presenter Oti Mabuse to swoop in with the correct response – Wicked – and salvage the point for herself and her presenter teammate, Stacey Dooley.
Sometimes though, one head is all it takes. “At the end of the day, if you go with your gut instinct and get it incorrect, you’re more forgiving of yourself than if you hadn’t gone with your gut,” says Hazzard, whose quiz is often frequented by the leaseholder of the Grapes pub, Sir Ian McKellen. The other benefit of going it alone is that you don’t need to negotiate the politics of playing in a team. In one of many Blockbuster bust-ups, teammates Manreet and Nyah disagreed on the choice of letter and subsequently lost a point, with Manreet jokingly defecting to their opponent’s side. So, are two heads really better than one? It depends on the problem and the people – and whether you can keep playing nice.
What B has a brand new series?
The new series of Blockbusters – hosted by Dara Ó Briain – hits our screens at 8pm on Thursday 26 September on Comedy Central.
