Survivor Ghost Island: Are castaways playing for money or glory?

Many players have personal, individual reasons for playing a game like this. For Survivor Ghost Island contestants, though, is it about winning or the money?

There’s a certain type of person who would sign away parts of their life in order to appear on television and compete for a million dollars. Not only do players need enough time off to compete (or willing to quit their jobs), but it also has to mean enough to them in order to endure such hardships, paranoia and health concerns. What exactly are the Survivor Ghost Island players on the show for?

One simple question seems to have a resounding effect on splitting up the players into two camps, and it comes from Dalton Ross at Entertainment Weekly. His question: Would you rather win Survivor but receive no money, or be voted out first and get a million dollars?

The split between Survivor Ghost Island players who would take the money and those who would rather win is a lot closer than I would have expected, as it seems like more people would rather walk away from a million dollars in order to get some relative fandom and glory that comes with being the Sole Survivor.

For those who can’t watch the video (you should; there are some interesting answers from certain players), the breakdown goes like this:

Take The Money

Jacob
Donathan
Michael
Desiree
Wendell
Gonzalez
Chelsea
Domenick

Win Survivor

James
Sebastian
Libby
Chris
Angela
Stephanie
Jenna
Laurel
Brendan
Kellyn
Morgan
Bradley

Interesting to note is that who wins the game and who takes the money does not completely separate by age, even though both Brendan and Angela agree they’d rather win the game. Libby, Jenna, James, Sebastian and others are in that category, while Domenick and Wendell are on the money side. The closest correlation I can find is having higher levels of education, opportunities and financial success allow you to enter the mindset where you could shrug off a million dollars in order to become the winner of a game show.

Next: Survivor Winners: Ranking 34 Sole Survivors By Season

Please let us know your thoughts on this dilemma, as it’s certainly got me thinking about the mindsets of the Survivor Ghost Island players heading into the game.

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