Red Light or Green Light?: The Science Behind Decision-Making in Netflix’s Squid Game

Imagine standing on the edge of a glass bridge; every step decides your fate. Your heart races; your hands sweat; and your brain fights between calculated strategy and raw survival instinct. What if this intense moment isn’t just a fictional scene from Netflix’s hit TV show Squid Game but a mirror of how your brain battles stress in real life? 

Psychological resilience—defined as the ability to adapt effectively to stress, trauma, or challenges—is a cornerstone of human survival. It is particularly relevant in high-stakes environments, in which failure to adapt can lead to catastrophic outcomes. Squid Game presents a grim, fictional challenge where psychological resilience is put to the test. 456 contestants navigate life-or-death scenarios that demand not only physical stamina but also mental endurance, forcing them to balance fear, morality, and self-preservation. In the brain, psychological resilience is formed primarily in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala. These regions play critical roles in decision-making and emotional regulation and reveal the psychological toll of extreme stress. 

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is often referred to as the brain’s “executive control.” It enables individuals to evaluate risks and plan for the future. It communicates with various other brain regions including the limbic system, which processes emotions, and the basal ganglia, which helps select and initiate actions. Within the PFC, there are different areas that play specialized roles. For instance, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) both contribute to risk evaluation, but they function differently. The OFC is particularly involved in comparing the potential rewards and punishments of different choices. In contrast, the vmPFC integrates emotional and social information to guide value-based decision-making, often relying on past experiences. Both regions are influenced by dopamine signaling, which shapes how we perceive risk and reward and enables us to make complex decisions. 

While the PFC controls deliberate choices, the amygdala drives natural reactions. It is located in the brain’s limbic system and is known as the brain’s “fear center.” The amygdala first receives sensory information from the brain’s thalamus—a structure that acts as a relay station—and collects raw sensory inputs from the eyes, ears, skin, and other sensory organs. The thalamus filters this information before sending it to the amygdala for future evaluation. The amygdala processes this sensory input through its various nuclei, notably the lateral amygdala, to assess the stimuli’s emotional significance. When a potential threat is identified, the amygdala activates a rapid automatic response by triggering the hypothalamus, initiating the typical “fight or flight” response. This involves the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which prepare the body to respond to danger. 

The functions of the PFC and the amygdala are clearly demonstrated in Squid Game’s high-pressure situations such as the “Honeycomb” game, in which contestants must carefully carve out shapes from brittle candy without breaking it. The penalty for failure is death, which raises the stakes. In this life-or-death scenario, the PFC is essential for decision-making such as careful planning to carve the candy. However, when time constraints are introduced, the PFC may prioritize quick decisions, which limits its ability to carefully plan the future. This shift can impair attention and lead to impulsive responses, triggering the amygdala to become more active as the brain enters a more reactive state. As a result, in the “Honeycomb” challenge, stress signals from the PFC and amygdala cause contestants to rush carving or use excessive force, increasing the likelihood of failure. 

The shift from rational decision-making to impulsive responses underscores the brain’s struggle to maintain control under pressure. However, in the multiplayer Squid Game, empathy also plays a significant role in decision-making. Empathy—a critical component of social cognition—is the ability to understand and share others’ feelings, enabling individuals to emotionally connect and respond to needs. Empathy engages several key regions of the brain such as the anterior insula, medial PFC, and mirror neuron systems—all of which are involved in processing emotion. In Squid Game, moments of empathy, such as the main character Gi-hun’s decision to spare his childhood friend, engage these regions of the brain, fostering connections that transcend an immediate need for survival. 

While empathy does facilitate trust and cooperation, it also creates vulnerabilities. The brain must balance these social bonds and norms with the survival instinct. This search for balance is known as social decision-making, during which the brain is wired to prioritize both emotional connections and survival. Social bonds are essential for cooperation and trust, and the brain relies on regions like the PFC to build relationships and create community. At the same time, the brain, through the amygdala, is wired for self-preservation and threat response. 

In the “Marbles” game, players were paired up and told to compete against their partner—a close ally—and the loser faced death. Initially, many contestants relied on empathy and trust, hoping to work together. However, as the pressure mounted, survival instincts took over, leading to deception and betrayal. An example of this is when Gi-hun—despite his previous friendship with Il-nam—an old man with dementia, took advantage of his memory loss to win the game, ensuring his own survival at the cost of Il-nam’s life. This moment highlights how, in high-stress situations, the amygdala can overpower empathy, forcing individuals to prioritize their survival over morals and emotional connections. 

This conflict between empathy and self-preservation is even more apparent when considering the long-term effects of surviving such high-stress situations. Survivors of Squid Game are likely to endure profound psychological trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Neuroimaging studies reveal that chronic exposure to life-threatening stress can shrink the hippocampus, impairing memory and emotional regulation. The hippocampus helps process and contextualize memories. When it is impaired, it becomes more difficult for individuals to distinguish between past and present threats, leading to intrusive flashbacks. PTSD also involves the amygdala’s hyper-activation, which can lead to a constant sense of danger, even in safe environments. Under the influence of chronic stress, the PFC ultimately becomes less effective at controlling the amygdala’s activity, leading to emotional regulation difficulties. This is clearly seen in Gi-hun’s struggles after winning the game—despite his survival, he experiences intense psychological distress. He develops insomnia, avoids spending his prize money, and isolates himself from loved ones, which are all classic signs of PTSD and survivor’s guilt. Such neural changes impair the brain’s ability to process and recover from trauma, leaving survivors vulnerable to long-term psychological challenges.

Squid Game is a dramatic lens to view the interplay of neuroscience, psychology, and morality in extreme conditions. The series illustrates how stress, fear, and survival instincts shape decision-making, driven by dynamic interactions between the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and other brain regions. By delving into contestants’ psychological resilience and the long-term impacts of trauma, the show ultimately serves as a reminder of the fragility and strength of the human mind when pushed to its limits.