DiSC Personality Types And The Reality Show 'Survivor'
CBS’s Survivor is the ultimate reality competition show that pits 22 personalities against one another for the chance at a million dollar prize. Since its inception on the American TV airwaves back in 2000, and after 40 entertaining seasons, it has gained a mass cult following. Beyond the award-winning production value, people from across the globe resonate with each of the contestants by envisioning how they would play the game and what strategies would work best.
This “game” can be seen as more than just a game which is one of the reasons for its success. Survivor is analogous to our real lives especially as working professionals. If you’ve ever watched the show, or even if you haven’t, it is easy to understand that each of us is a “survivor” contestant in our own right. We all inherently have our personality traits that we use to interact with each other on a daily basis.
What Are The DiSC® Personality Types?
If you are not familiar with what a DiSC® profiles test is (Read: What is a Disc Profiles Test to learn more). In a nutshell, a DiSC® profile test is a simple 10 minute personality test that, after 40+ years of high-level proven academic research, has shown that human behavior falls within 4 distinct character trait areas.
The DiSC® personality behavior types are:
- Dominance
- Influence
- Steadiness
- Conscientiousness
Using Survivor as model for the different personality types, we will take a look at contestants from Survivor: Cagayan (Season 28) and Survivor: Second Chances (Season 31), we can get a glimpse of the four distinct behavior traits represented best by some of the main contestants.
DiSC® Personality Type - D
Tony Vlachos’ play within the game was absolutely a D (for Dominance) behavior type throughout the entire season. The DiSC® D behavior style has the following characteristics:
Disc personality type: D- Results, Action, Accuracy
- Goals: Bottom-line results, victory
- Fears: Failure to achieve
- Leadership Qualities: Sets high expectations, speaks up about problems
Tony’s game play led him to have laser-like focus towards winning the grand prize. Every single move he made in the game was calculated, both good and bad, to get him further towards his goal. He was willing to sacrifice alliances, immunity idols and rewards to push him further in the game. The fear of failing for him was so great, that he swore on his police officer badge, his daughter, mother, wife etc… that he wasn’t going to betray his alliance members and then he eventually did. His gameplay was so strong, that in the end despite all of his lies, he had jury members lobbying for him to win the game because he completely lived up to the Survivor motto of ‘Outwit, Outlast, Outplay’.
DiSC® Personality Type - I
Jeremy Collins “Second Chance” season was a true testament to his natural DiSC® personality style type ‘I’. As a firefighter in Cambridge, Massachusetts his style of game play relied heavily on his persuasion techniques and his likeable personality. The DiSC® ‘I’ behavior style has the following characteristics:
Disc personality type: I- Persuasive, Extroverted, Optimistic, Collaboration
- Goals: Popularity, approval, excitement
- Fears: Rejection, not being heard
- Leadership Qualities: Showing enthusiasm, building professional networks
His final tribal speech laid out all of the qualities of his game play including playing one of the hidden immunity idols for a neurotic player (Stephen Fishback) who was most certainly going to be voted out at tribal council, having the allegiance of most of the jury members even after they were voted out, and noting that he played the entire game while his wife was pregnant and that he was playing the game for them.
DiSC® Personality Type - C
Spencer Bledsoe played the game in a much more serious manner than that of his cast mates. His methodical game play and superior ability to digest information and solve puzzles put him in the DiSC® personality type of C perfectly. The DiSC® personality type C has the following characteristics:
Disc personality type: C- Accurate, Detail-oriented, Logical
- Goals: Accuracy, objective processes
- Fears: Being wrong, strong displays of emotion
- Leadership Qualities: Communicating with clarity, promoting disciplined analysis
Throughout the Cagayan season, Spencer had a montage of strong celebrations (and tantrums!). He was the odd-man out on a terrible tribe but his keen accuracy and ability to strategize kept him around until very late in the game.
DiSC® Personlity Type - S
Woo Hwang is a martial arts instructor, personal trainer and surfing instructor. His game play surprised many but when coupled with his professional work, it was easy to understand that he preferred a fully harmonious and stable environment which is very indicative of the Disc behavior style S. The Disc personality type S has the following characteristics:
Disc personality type: S- Peaceful, Diplomatic, Supportive
- Goals: Harmony, stability
- Fears: Letting people down, rapid change
- Leadership Qualities: Staying open to input, showing diplomacy
Woo was extremely popular amongst his tribe mates and the viewing public. He was hard to root against due to his loyal game play (with eventual winner Tony from above), and ability to be open to listening to other players’ strategy pitches. His fear of letting Tony down, however, was ultimately his downfall. His principles and morals were praised in his game relationships, but for a strategy in Survivor, they were not enough to win the jury votes.
What Can You Learn From Your DiSC® Personality Style?
Taking an Everything Disc assessment is extremely easy and can even be completed using your phone. You will not only learn about yourself, but you will also learn tips about challenges you will have when interacting with the other DiSC® Profiles types. Your detailed report is backed by years of research and has been used by millions.
Find out what your Disc style is today by purchasing one of our Everything DiSC® products:
Conclusion
The show Survivor brings out all the different personality traits throughout both our personal and work lives. Learning both what your DiSC® personality style is and how you interact better with others, will only help you ‘Survive’ and enrich your ability to connect and work with others so that you can ‘Outwit, Outlast, and Outplay’.
If you would like to find out what the Everything DiSC® difference is all about, check out our overview of ‘Why Use Everything DiSC’. We also have success story videos of companies that have successfully used Everything DiSC® to empower their employees towards learning, acceptance and collaboration.
