Survivor Blog Post #7

In episode 8 of Survivor, decision making and problem solving techniques become the key to making effective choices within the group. Similarly to episode 7, at the beginning of the episode Josh tries to convince Baylor to side with him instead of her mother’s and Jeremy’s alliance. He tries to persuade her into voting for Jeremy because he claims that she owes it to him after he had saved her previously in the competition. By adding Baylor to his team, he hopes to solidify more numbers within his own alliance. Also, he believes it will allow him to build a consensus among his alliance members to accomplish the mutual goal of voting Jeremy out of the competition. Josh sees Jeremy as the biggest threat to him in the competition and believes that with enough power, influence, and individuals agreeing with him, everyone’s willingness to achieve the same goal will ultimately force Jeremy to leave. However, Baylor is not phased by his proposal to her and resolves to side with Jeremy’s group instead.

Jacklyn also faces a situation in which she must persuade other individuals to side with her as well. After Jon is chosen to go to Exile Island, Jacklyn realizes that the male alliance they had previously sided with did not value her opinion or input within the group. It soon became apparent that without Jon’s presence, their former alliance had no consideration for her vote at all and ignored her entirely. Her feeling a lack of respect and trust from the group caused her to try to persuade Jon to switch alliances. Jon however, felt skeptical and questioned whether her decision was the right one.

Jacklyn and Jon were then forced to use problem solving techniques in order to come to a solution. They needed to analyze the problem of deciding which alliance was better and weigh out the options. They also needed to debate on the pros and cons of each side. A pro of switching teams that they discussed would be that they would be able to vote out Josh, who was also a strong competitor and leader of their former alliance, which would give them more power. On the other hand, a con they mentioned was that siding with Jeremy may backfire when he could win the competition entirely because his story is more convincing than theirs. Jon and Jacklyn’s decision to strategize with one another ultimately led them to change alliances and vote for Josh at tribal council. In the end, it was the majority vote that caused Josh to be voted out of the competition.