The Neuroscience of Squid Game: Why We Can’t Look Away
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Written by: Ahmed Moeed Yusuf
Edited by: Fahad Hassan Shah and Nadia Hall
Abstract
Squid Game, the global hit series, captivates with high-stakes games, desperation, violence, and moral dilemmas. This article looks at the mental and brain processes that make the series so popular. Drawing on research in threat processing, reward/aversion dynamics, and media-violence desensitization, and connecting to frameworks in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP) Psychology (biological, cognitive, and sociocultural approaches), this article analyzes why viewers are drawn to extreme violence and how financial desperation in the show’s characters can interact with self-preservation instincts.
Introduction
When the show Squid Game came out, it quickly became popular all over the world. The premise, financially desperate individuals competing in lethal childhood games for a massive monetary prize, forces viewers to confront unsettling questions, such as “How far would I go for money?", “What motivates individuals to risk their lives?”, and “What does desperation do to human morality?” The show’s popularity suggests a deeper psychological draw beyond spectacle or shock.
From a neuroscience perspective, emotionally intense and morally fraught content engages brain circuits linked to threat detection, reward and arousal, empathy, and social cognition. Students studying psychology can use Squid Game as a clear example of how biology, thinking, and culture affect people. The series shows how large social gaps and tough personal situations can change how people make choices, decide what is right or wrong, and act under pressure.
The Appeal of Violence: Threat and Reward Systems at Play
Part of why people stay interested in Squid Game is because its scenes blend danger and potential rewards in a way that elicits deep neural responses. In real human neuroscience research, as a threat becomes increasingly imminent, brain activity alters dynamically: regions like the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) dominate when danger is distant, supporting complex evaluation and planning, but as danger becomes close, activity shifts to more primitive midbrain centers like the periaqueductal gray (PAG), which govern reflexive, survival-oriented responses (Mobbs et al., 2007).
For viewers of Squid Game, each on-screen game simulates escalating threat levels. As characters inch closer to violence and death, the tension we feel may evoke the same neurobiological switch between higher-order risk evaluation and primal fear, which can heighten engagement, adrenaline, and emotional arousal.
The chance to win a big cash prize makes this fear more complicated. Even though survival is not certain, the reward adds another factor to consider. While there is less direct research on “reward from watching violence,” analogous studies suggest that humans may experience dopamine-linked arousal or anticipation when observing high-stakes or high-arousal events. Some researchers have proposed that dopaminergic systems may contribute to anticipatory arousal during high-uncertainty situations, though direct evidence specific to fictional media violence remains limited. The mix of fear and reward likely makes people want to keep watching even more.
This situation shows a conflict between biological, cognitive, and sociocultural ideas. It explains how our environment (like financial struggles), thinking (weighing costs and risks), and brain systems (neurotransmitters, arousal circuits, and threat-detection networks) all work together to influence how people behave.
Desensitization, Empathy, and Emotional Processing
Repeated exposure to violent or distressing media content can lead to desensitization, a reduction in emotional and physiological responsiveness. In one experimental study, participants who played violent video games for 20 minutes later showed lower heart rate and galvanic skin response than those who played nonviolent games when watching real-life violent footage (Carnagey, Anderson, & Bushman, 2007).
This finding supports the possibility that media violence, even fictional, can influence physiological reactivity. However, the extent to which such laboratory findings generalize to long-term empathic functioning remains debated. Indeed, other research using event-related potentials (ERP) suggests that exposure to violent media correlates with reduced neural responses to others’ pain or distress (Bartholow, Sestir, & Davis 2005).
Applied to Squid Game, this suggests two things: (1) for frequent viewers, repeated exposure to graphic violence may gradually dull their empathic responses; (2) the normalized portrayal of life-or-death stakes and moral compromise may shift internal moral benchmarks, making extreme violence feel less shocking over time. From an IB DP Psychology cognitive and sociocultural lens, this raises important questions about how media shapes attitudes toward suffering, risk, and morality.
Money, Desperation, and Moral Trade-offs: What Drives the Players?
In Squid Game, the characters’ motivation is financial desperation: debt, poverty, and social marginalization. This drives them to participate in deadly games. Psychologically, this reflects the power of extrinsic motivators (money, escape from debt) overpowering intrinsic motivations (survival instinct, moral values, social bonds). Under severe stress and perceived lack of alternatives, cost–benefit calculations become skewed, and reward-center activation may override prefrontal regions responsible for ethical decision-making.
Neuroscience supports the idea that, under imminent threat or stress, midbrain survival circuits can dominate over higher-order cortical reasoning, leading to reflexive, sometimes ethically compromised choices (Mobbs et al. 2007). Such shifts may influence decision-making under pressure, though human moral reasoning remains multifactorial and context-dependent.
From an IB DP perspective, this scenario reflects a tension among the biological, cognitive, and sociocultural approaches, showing how environment (economic hardship), cognition (cost-benefit, risk evaluation), and neurobiology (threat/reward systems) converge to shape human behavior.
Social Comparison, Empathy, and the Mirror of Our Own Choices
Another psychological draw of Squid Game lies in social comparison and empathy. Viewers naturally place themselves in the characters’ positions, imagining how they would react under similar desperation. This vicarious engagement likely activates neural systems related to empathy, social cognition, and moral reasoning. Studies of media violence and empathy suggest that exposure influences not only physiological responses but also attitudes, perceptions of violence severity, and willingness to help victims (Carnagey et al., 2007).
From the IB DP sociocultural approach, this shows how media, as part of our social environment, affects how we think and feel about society. Squid Game becomes a kind of social mirror, forcing viewers to reflect on inequality, desperation, and ethical boundaries under pressure.
Conclusion
Squid Game’s global popularity is not just a matter of sensational entertainment; it reflects deep neuropsychological, cognitive, and sociocultural dynamics. The series taps into primal threat-response circuits, reward and arousal systems, and the human capacity for social comparison and empathy. It shows how tough money problems can make people change their morals. When the environment is hard, and people feel desperate, it can affect how they make choices, what they think is right, and how they interact with others.
For students of IB DP Psychology, Squid Game can serve as a powerful contemporary case study. It helps explain the biological, cognitive, and sociocultural approaches in a clear way. As media consumption continues to grow worldwide, understanding not just what we watch but how watching affects us emotionally, cognitively, and socially becomes increasingly important.
References
Bartholow, B. D., Sestir, M., & Davis, E. B. (2005). Correlates and consequences of exposure to video game violence: Hostile personality, empathy, and aggressive behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(11), 1573–1586. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167205277203
Buth, E. (2022). Squid Game: A spoiler-free philosophical analysis. The Clock. https://www.plymouth.edu/theclock/squid-game-a-spoiler-free-philosophical-analysis/
Carnagey, N. L., Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(3), 489–496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2006.05.003
Fanti, K. A., & Henrich, C. C. (2015). Effects of peer stress and media violence exposure on youth aggressive behaviour: A longitudinal analysis. Aggressive Behavior, 41(6), 638–649. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21567
Mobbs, D., Petrovic, P., Marchant, J. L., Hassabis, D., Weiskopf, N., Seymour, B., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D. (2007). When fear is near: Threat imminence elicits prefrontal–periaqueductal gray shifts in humans. Science, 317(5841), 1079–1083. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1144298
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