Who Will Get The Votes?

This episode started with something very unexpected: a merger! The two tribes would be merging into one. Many celebrated since they reconnected with their loved ones and all enjoyed a huge feast. Before the feast was over, battle plans were already being drawn. These opposing plans were put into place by Jeremy and Josh, both in fear they would be voted out at the next tribal meeting. They wanted each other gone, so they tried desperately to get other tribe members on their side and thus vote the opposing person off.

They used a number of verbal and non verbal behaviors to sway these tribe members and it was very interesting to watch their strategies. Considering the million dollar prize awaiting the winner, both Josh and Jeremy felt they had a lot at stake. I noticed both of them, in soliciting to the tribe members, use a few of the dimensions of team talk in order to identify with that person. In fact, almost all of the dimensions were used by one or the other. A good example of how these were used occurred when talking to their prospective alliances. Josh wanted to make clear to them that he wasn’t a threat to them and that they are on equal footing, yet highlighted how Jeremy is a strong competitor and how knocking him out of the competition right now could be a mutual benefit. Josh and Jeremy also used words like ‘us’ and ‘we’ in their conversations to identify with the tribe members.

I also noticed many of the defensive behaviors on display during this alliance building. Strategy was a major one. Jeremy and Josh were trying to get tribe members to vote a certain way and the true motivations for this action wasn’t to help that tribe member, but rather to protect themselves from elimination. This was a form of manipulation that they used. Also, control was a major defensive behavior that was used. Josh was trying to hold on to the position he and Reed held within their tribe before the merger. Josh and Reed saw Jeremy as a threat to the alliances they had with others and needed to impose their solution (getting rid of Jeremy) onto the other tribe members in order to maintain control. The episode was very interesting and the way Josh and Jeremy interacted with the other tribe members really helped me see a realistic application of the chapter content.