We humans are extraordinary.
Hi.
We have these great big brains but we also have animal instincts
that drive us to behave in sometimes unpredictable ways.
My god! (screams)
I want to explore why we do what we do.
What makes us competitive?
Go on, Joe, that's 25 seconds.
Fearful. (Siren sounds)
(People scream)
And how much does sex lie behind our actions?
Where do you think my mouth is? Is that in there?
I'm Dr Michael Mosley and this grand country house
is going to host a series of unique events.
Forwards... (Clicks fingers)
I give up.
I've invited some unwitting guests
to take part in carefully constructed experiments,
cunningly disguised as everyday activities.
Oh my god!
They have no idea that actually
they're part of my human laboratory.
That was an emotional rollercoaster,
I mean, just watching it was an emotional rollercoaster.
Yes!
I'm joined by experts.
Together we eavesdrop every conversation
(Gasps) Did I?
analyse every move...
Everything I thought I would like to find, it has been found.
His heart rate is very high.
to reveal the real science behind human behaviour
before revealing all.
Hello!
Oh my god, I love him. Sorry.
Blimey, humans are odd, aren't they?
Like it or not, competition is at the heart of life.
We compete for money, status, sex.
When we compete we're capable of being really selfish
but also of acts of extraordinary generosity.
So if you were thrown into a situation of intense competition
how far would you go,
what strategies would you adopt to come out on top?
I've invited nine cut-throat would-be winners
to the country house.
Good morning. Hi.
Can I take your name? Philip.
Bonnie. Carl.
They think they're taking part
in a military leadership-style competition,
being filmed for a documentary.
Good morning, cadets. (casual) Morning.
Good morning, cadets. (Louder) Good morning.
They're expecting a weekend of physical and mental challenges,
competing for merit points.
This event is called Rank Above The Rest.
They have no idea it's really my chance to study them,
and that Sergeant Black and Major Midgely are working for me.
Also secretly helping me
are Olympian and physical activity expert Professor Greg Whyte,
and sport and exercise scientist Dr Faye Didymus.
Morning. Interesting cast of characters.
Have you had the chance to read some of this stuff on them? Yeah.
They're a diverse group, definitely. Yeah.
The cadets immediately start sizing each other up.
Joe looks like a serious contender.
You're a firefighter? Yeah, yeah.
And fitness instructor as well? Yeah.
You're gonna be really good at this.
It was my childhood dream to be a fireman.
When I've got a goal to do something I do it
so I had to make sure that I stood out.
Anita is a personal trainer.
I do progression pictures for my clients
so they get them before in their underwear,
four mug shots, you know, front, back,
both sides and do all their measurements, their body fat.
I love getting the best out of people,
I love getting the best out of myself and I love competing.
You two look scarily the same.
That's because 19-year-old Carl and Kelvin are twins.
Have you got a main feature difference?
He's got a freckle under his eye. We are identical twins.
Even our parents can't tell us apart sometimes.
I'll be very interested to see if these siblings
compete or cooperate.
The cadets have yet to pick up their room keys.
On the surface it seems a simple task
but it's really a cunning test of strategy.
Okay. We'd like you to select your rooms.
Shelter is a basic need
and most animals have to compete for it.
We've arranged the bedroom keys in an obvious hierarchy.
At the top, a luxury suite fit for a field Marshall.
Down at the bottom, the worst rooms.
You have ten minutes to make your choice.
You'd imagine the luxury suite would be nabbed first, but will it?
Please select your rooms.
Okay. Ten minutes. Here we go.
What would you do in this situation? I sort of think I'd be polite.
When you have selected your rooms, please meet us outside.
Oh, Joe's in there.
Absolutely no bloody hesitation was there? Oh wow.
None of this "Oh, after you, after you."
It's an interesting strategy isn't it?
Nobody wanted to take the best one, nor did they want the worst one
but they were happy to go and grab anything in between.
Ah, human nature!
Out of the blue, Oxford brainbox Adam swoops in to claim the best room.
Is that the fairest way to do it? I'm not gonna complain if it is...
What happened there was that the best room was left
and the two worst rooms were left
and then Adam stepped in and almost embarrassingly
looked at other people and said "Is it all right if I..."
It's sly, isn't it? Yeah.
Sneaking in there at the last minute, I'll take that one.
There is a strategy known as the 'sneaky fucker' strategy.
The term 'sneaky fucker' was first coined by an evolutionary biologist
called John Maynard Smith.
People assumed that when you got a situation like two big deer clashing
that the one who won got the girl,
but Maynard Smith noticed that occasionally
while these two are fighting away
a less macho male would seize the opportunity
to sneak in and mate with the female.
There's no sex involved in this instance
but Adam is displaying a very fine grasp of this strategy.
Oh wow...
I'm very strategic.
Oh my god.
I enjoy finding new ways to slyly find an advantage
so I didn't like to kinda rush in and grab
because that wouldn't look great, and it just so happens
the people who ran for it didn't take number one
so I strolled up and had a choice of number one or the bottom few
so then the slightly selfish side came in,
I thought, I'm gonna take number one.
I have an en-suite.
Get used to this.
I'm happy with the room. No regrets, to be honest.
Before the cadets arrived we tested their testosterone levels.
This hormone is said to be a good predictor of competitiveness.
So I'd expect those with the highest levels to win.
Fall in line.
But winning isn't simply about hormone levels,
it's also about motivation.
Don't you all look lovely?
So now that you are changed, the fun and games can begin.
The Burpee Challenge. Everybody likes burpees?
(All) Yep.
The burpee they're about to do, this is a good form of exercise?
If there's a single exercise which works every system,
this is it.
I shall give you a demonstration now.
So, hands to floor, feet out behind you.
Chest to floor, pushing up, feet in,
jump and clap above your head, okay?
How many should somebody be aiming at who isn't terribly fit?
Oh my goodness... 20, max, in sets of three maybe?
Do three, have a breather...
No, sorry, I meant 20, have a breather.
Blue team, follow me. Red team, follow me.
What motivates us most, the carrot or the stick?
I've split the cadets into two teams
and they're going to get two very different experiences.
First person here, please.
Major Midgely will use lots of lovely positive feedback
to encourage his cadets.
You're gonna be doing two minutes of burpees each,
for those not doing burpees
you'll be calling out the number that we're on.
While Sergeant Black will employ a more brutal approach.
If I think that a burpee has not been done correctly
you go back to the number previous, d'you understand? Yeah.
What we're looking at is punishment versus reward.
So, some of them are being punished, some of them are being rewarded.
I put an identical twin in each group to make a useful comparison.
Okay, are we ready? Yeah.
First person. Three, two... (whistles)
One...
Excellent, good burpees, keep it going.
So this lot are getting encouragement all round, aren't they?
Yeah, they're in a reward condition if you like.
Excellent. Keep it going, you've got more in there.
Anita...
In the other group, Anita is getting a serious amount of stick.
You've got a lot of work to do, Anita. This is slow.
Three, keep going, this is rubbish. This is poor.
I expected much better than this, Anita.
Five...
We're all told with kids, you've gotta encourage them
and it's all about "Well done, you're doing terrifically well."
30...
You're virtually at a standstill.
Should have done many more than this.
If the drill sergeant's telling her she's not very good at burpees
she's thinking to herself, I'll show you what I am about burpees.
22...
Well done, Kelvin, doing really well.
Keep that place on the leader board.
It will be interesting to see how the twins respond.
We've got identical twins and I imagine they'd probably be
equally competent at this sort of task,
but in the other group Carl is getting a lot of grief
and there is a massive difference.
Maybe you could start getting ahead of your brother?
Same genetics and he's doing better than you.
And you're slowing up, do not stop.
Your brother won't be stopping, will he?
Why? Cos he's better than you. 14...
I imagine your brother's done 20 by now. Do not stop. This is poor.
Keep going, well done, Kelvin, you're doing really well.
Do something, Bonnie. These are not good burpees. Come on.
That's good, Joe, well done, good start, keep it going.
That's good.
Well done, team. Grab your jackets.
Twin Kelvin, with positive feedback
achieved more than Carl in the negative group.
What is striking is Carl,
his identical twin brother who is just as fit as him,
just as able as him, he was strikingly less.
We've got 29 versus 40.
I'd expect people to respond better to encouragement
and in our test the cadets with positive feedback
did 30% more burpees than the negative group.
Well done, Anita. You're so quick.
But it's not always the case.
Despite being in the harsh criticism group
Anita achieved more burpees than anyone else.
To some extent, some people enjoy disproving the system.
I physically couldn't see anything or hear anything,
all I could hear was the Major bloke saying "Come on, Phil..."
Was he encouraging you? He was putting down.
Absolutely putting us down.
He was, he was going "I expected better than you,
"this is poor, this is useless."
Our motivation comes from the reward system in our brain.
When we do something we enjoy
the brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine
and that makes us feel good so we do that thing again.
Now as we've just seen, most people prefer being praised
but some people prefer criticism
Perhaps Anita is the type to find inner strength when facing adversity.
I had something kinda go wrong in my marriage.
And just went through depression, anxiety, antidepressants,
and then I realised, right,
what I'm gonna do is just overcome this with exercise.
I had a huge motivation to get in shape.
My ex-husband cheated on me with a friend
and I thought, right that's it,
I'm so gonna go for it and get my confidence,
my body and my mind back in shape.
I just thought I'm just not gonna be a victim.
I think when bad things happen to people in life
there's one of two ways that they go,
they wallow in it or they do something about it
and for me, I did my transformation, I became who I really was.
When he was yelling at us during the burpees today
and he was going... this is poor, I thought, I know it's not poor.
And I'm not gonna let you make my decision for how I feel.
But the old me would have gone "Oh yeah" and probably
felt quite uptight and emotional about it and...
Did you shout anything back at him?
I was thinking in my mind, you're a wanker.
Cadets, come on in, don't be shy.
Next up, rowing.
The cadets have all been fitted with heart rate monitors
and I'll be watching what happens
when I make this a rowing race with a difference.
Sit down, strap yourselves in.
You'll be rowing for 20 minutes.
Whoever rows the furthest in that time wins most points.
Do you understand? Yes, Staff.
Are you ready? Yeah.
And row.
The cadets will row for 10 minutes
before my experiment really starts.
In the wild, one of the main reasons animals compete is to win a mate.
So, halfway through on the pretext of delivering water...
Okay, distraction time.
I'm introducing a couple of good-looking models,
to see how they affect the cadets' performance.
Has that had any effect on our girls?
Oh, look at Clare at the back. She's going for it.
Phil took a look.
So did Joe. Joe took a long look. Joe's taking a look, yeah.
Joe began to drop back after that look.
Is Kelvin going to respond? The model is giving him the smile.
Whoa, there goes Kelvin!
It's made all the difference to him. Kelvin's going for it.
Kelvin's heart rate has shot up.
That suddenly did give Kelvin a bit of an oomph, didn't it?
Five minutes to go, now stop and have a break if you wish.
Oh, Kelvin's taken over the lead. Yeah.
He's in the lead. Go, boy!
Guys... will you leave, please?
So, what will happen when the models leave?
What's happening to Kelvin? The model's gone.
Yeah, look, he's stopped. Oh my god!
As soon as she left.
If you do not complete the 20 minutes
you will not receive your 50 merits. Come on, Kelvin.
30 seconds.
It's okay, guys, you can still do it. Come on, you've gotta catch him.
Come on, Phil, don't stop!
Come on!
Three, two, one, stop.
Well done, Joe.
It was hilarious seeing the effect the model had,
when she came in and when she went.
It was literally like that, wasn't it?
Be interesting to know if he noticed.
Did she put you off?
She just kept looking at me and smiling.
Waving her boobies.
When the girl came in I was just thinking
I've got to push myself now,
I can't show myself up so I just went all out.
He was looking at the lady like that...
he stopped rowing to look at the lady.
She kept smiling at me on purpose.
What the rowing challenge has shown
is that although there are lots of reasons why people compete
and want to win
if you're a young man like Kelvin
then trying to impress an attractive member of the opposite sex
is high up on your list.
For Adam, the motives for competing are rather more complex.
I think you need something drastic to happen in your life
for you to change your perspective on what you want.
When I was, I think, 20 I lost all my memory completely.
I was at Oxford.
I think Oxford's one of the most stressful places in the world.
Relationship stresses as well.
It was a very tough time, as a result my stress built up.
I fainted. When I came to my memory was completely gone.
It was put down to some sort of post-trauma-induced amnesia.
My brain wiped itself.
You had to find great inner confidence to get through it
cos I was terrified to leave the house because I didn't know what an ATM was,
who my friends were, about my life, my parents.
It took almost a year to start coming back,
so for a year I didn't know anything,
I didn't know who Michael Jackson was.
I set myself a challenge, if I can get into MENSA
I can prove to myself I've still got something there.
To get the confidence back I decided to start challenging myself.
So getting into MENSA was a really big thing
as it represented me overcoming quite a difficult time.
I can't imagine what that must be like. That's scary.
In a way it's why I'm so competitive.
I try and do things which prove to yourself you can do it still.
You will now assemble outside.
Off you go. Get away!
Oh God. What are we about to do?
Unlike the rest of the animal kingdom
we humans compete just for the hell of it,
even when winning involves lots of pain.
Oh my god.
So, they're actually going to do a classic pain threshold test here
which is putting your hands into ice-cold water.
How much pain will our recruits endure simply to win?
No way. God, I'm cold just looking at it.
It is extremely painful
and it is one of those pains that just goes on and on.
The idea of this test is to see how long
you can keep your hand in the iced water.
This is a test of your endurance... your willpower.
Cath's gonna be great at this.
Yeah?
Cath competes as an ice swimmer in sub-zero temperatures,
she should have a clear advantage.
I have the title of the first Welsh woman to complete an ice mile,
so I'm really proud of that.
They class it as the Everest of swimming.
It's under Channel swimming rules, so just a swimming costume
and the water temperature needs to be under 5 degrees
for it to be classed as an ice mile. I do get the shivers
but I don't get them as bad as everybody else so...
I don't know, maybe I'm just lucky.
Cath is the one we obviously expect to sail through this one.
Well, what you've got with Cath...
Fear's gonna drive a lot of this. And it's fear of the unknown.
With the exception of Cath
I doubt if anybody's ever put much of their body into iced water
and yet she has so she's got experience
and so she knows that she can cope with it.
Please put your blindfolds on.
The blindfolds will prevent them seeing how their rivals are doing.
Is everybody ready? Yes.
You see I'm finding this painful just looking at the bucket of water.
Place your hands in the bucket.
Argh!
Bit chilly.
Yeah. Is your hand supposed to be in severe pain?
After a while they'll start experiencing excruciating pain.
The nerve endings involved in detecting pain
are also stimulated by extreme cold.
The bottom line is it's miserable.
You can't escape that. What you've got to try and do,
they have to take those negative thoughts
and just park them to one side
and focus on something more positive.
It could be singing the back catalogue of Abba.
If ever this feels too much,
simply pull your hand out of the bucket.
But the difficult thing is that these negative thoughts
are always trying to creep back in again
and that's the difference between those that can keep going and those that can't
is that the negative thoughts begin to overwhelm them.
Cath, would you like to remove your hand?
No.
It was really weird cos it was nothing like swimming,
it was totally different, you just had this one hand in a bucket
which was getting fatter by the second.
Adam, would you like to remove your hand?
No way, Jose!
Clare, would you like to remove your hand?
I think I'm gonna be sick, but no.
Phil, would you like to... I'd love to, Staff,
but I'm not going to.
Anita? Ah, it's like a spa, man.
That was physical pain and I've had massive emotional pain before
and the tactics are exactly the same,
you just have to focus on getting through it.
Kelvin, I'm sure you would like to remove your hand, would you not?
No, I'll be fine.
Bonnie? No.
Carl? No, thank you.
Joe, would you like to remove your hand?
Not a chance. I'll be here till tonight.
You get some negative thoughts coming in your mind,
am I taking this too far, am I being too competitive,
but I knew I was gonna be the last one, no matter what,
there was no contest, I was there, I was staying till the end.
Can't feel it now, though.
When you stop feeling it it's not bad.
It's interesting from the point of view of competitiveness,
people can just go beyond the point...
I suspect if we left them longer they would just keep going
even if they realised it was likely to cause damage.
10 minutes are almost up,
which means they are getting near the limit
of how long we can safely run this experiment.
Much longer and there'd be the risk of frostbite.
We've got competitive people that will win at all costs.
And so beyond 10 minutes you are beyond the limits
of health and safety I would have said.
If you would like to go for another 10 minutes, please raise your hand.
Keeping their hands in the ice for another 10 minutes is risky,
yet most seem willing to do it to win.
Ah, forget it. Oh, Clare!
Painful!
Jesus, is she gonna be sick? Oh, now she's in agony.
She's crying. Yeah, she's crying and she's hurt.
The interesting thing is that the greatest pain comes when they extract the hand.
(Tearful) It hurts.
I've just never felt pain like it.
I kind of catastrophized that task
because the fear that I was going to lose some sort of hand or digit...
I was like, this isn't right.
Everybody's determined now, aren't they?
This is an example really of where competition goes too far.
When does frostbite kick in?
If you actually persisted,
and this lot look as though they would persist,
they would keep going and eventually they would get frostbite,
they would get... A serious cold injury.
Cold injury. No doubt about that.
To save them from themselves, I'm actually going to pull the plug.
We are now going to end this challenge.
Please remove your hands.
(All gasp)
Holy crap!
Anita is really, really in a lot of pain there.
Well, now get them to put the other hand in.
Now they know how painful it is, now they know how miserable it is
get 'em to put the other hand in and see how they go.
I was thinking I know I'm gonna take this forever.
I would do damage to myself before I take it out
so I'm kind of relying on their safety.
Why is this still painful?
Do they feel a little bit like you've burnt them on the oven?
Yeah, on the fingertips, is it what yours feel like?
No, just when I press them I've got pins and needles.
There is some evidence that the hormone testosterone
dulls pain pathways in the brain and that could help explain
why men generally do better in the ice bucket challenge.
Interestingly enough, Clare, who was the only person who had to give up,
also had the lowest levels of testosterone
in this particular group.
Are you naturally competitive because you're twins?
I think so, yeah, with like everything.
You must share so many similar traits
that you must be desperate to differentiate yourselves in something.
Anything in everyday life is just competitive with us.
One Christmas our parents bought us a ping-pong table
and we used to play that every single day,
and that's where it all started really, right?
That's where it took another level.
For everything we do, we have to do rock, paper, scissors,
every single thing.
Shall we show you how fast we can do it?
Oh my god....
That's like professional, how do you know?
We literally do it with everything.
But how did you know who won? I won, pretty much.
I won. 3-1. I told you I always win.
We do it fast.
That was speed paper, scissors, stone, that was impressive.
The next test is all about
the hormone testosterone and risk taking.
Good evening, cadets. (All) Good evening.
You look very glamorous. (All) Thank you.
May I remind you of our current merit board.
You have Kelvin and Joe in the lead on 250 merits.
However, all is not lost.
There are merits to be won at the roulette wheel.
Do you understand? Yes.
Good. Have fun.
Good luck, everybody.
Place your bets, please.
Joe and the twins have the highest levels of testosterone.
Will they take the biggest risks?
You're going for it, are you? I'm going for it.
Come on, just drop into 33.
22 black. Yeah!
Oh my God. I'm just gonna start taking risks now.
Everything on black?
Who's doing good? Are you? No, I'm doing terrible.
I am hugely competitive. I wanna win everything if I can.
The twins currently are my biggest competition,
physically the more events I'm against them
the more chance I'll come out on top.
How are you doing, Joe, have you got lots? No.
What happens if we get out? Burpees.
I'd much prefer that.
I'm probably not doing great this time
but I know that there's no point in going
"I'll leave it now, I'll give up"
because there's no way that I should rule myself out.
It's not over yet!
Place your bets, please.
You're putting one on a number.
Just watch, watch and learn, boy. Don't tell me how to play my game.
My biggest competition in this is Kelvin.
Listen to your brother.
Kelvin won't let it down if he beats me so I need to beat Kelvin.
I'm so nervous.
Even, even, even, even... I can't look.
Yeah!
4 black, even. Bollocks.
Hello, cadets. Hi.
Who won the roulette wheel? I did.
Kelvin. Well done. 100 more merits.
And you are head of the leader board.
Joe is now second.
I hope you've enjoyed your day.
Enjoy the rest of your evening.
Cadets, we will see you tomorrow.
If you're desperate
then the simplest way to win is obviously to cheat.
I want to test this group's morals
when they think they're on a cookery challenge.
Oh my God. Are we cooking?
Pancakes. Are you kidding me?
So, this is a very different sort of test.
Cadets, the army is not just about combat, it is also about...
Food. Food.
Pancakes.
Your challenge
is to make as many pancakes as possible in 20 minutes.
The cadets have been told they cannot consult a recipe,
they have to work it out for themselves.
Are you ready, cadets?
Three, two, go.
Oh God, how do we even light it? We need some eggs in there.
What d'you do, an egg and what? We'll just wing it.
Do they have to be circular?
What is that stuff? That's sugar.
I want to find out if anyone's willing to bend the rules
so we've secretly given Phil the recipe.
He's been told to make the cadets aware of it
so they can gain a sneaky advantage if they want.
Look what I found. Ah...
Right, what does it say?
It's basically the recipe for pancakes.
If somebody's got it, do you have a sneaky peak at it, is that cheating?
I don't know if you wanna pass that on. Yes, please.
Well, I've not even read it myself yet
cos I've not got my bloody glasses.
All of the cadets took the bait, apart from one.
Don't let them catch me.
I'm not risking it...
Kelvin was the exception.
I didn't wanna cheat, I just kept with my own instincts
and, yeah, I can't be cheating.
I don't need it, Phil. True champions.
How much milk does it say? Pass on what says about the butter.
Can I have a look? If they come out, hide it somewhere.
Two teaspoons, oh, shit.
Now they're looking... they're looking at it now. Yeah.
Now they're taking a closer look.
How much milk does it say?
I hope no one's cheating down there.
What's the flour mixture? Sugar...
Four tablespoons. Hooray.
Oh, well done, Carl. Look at this flipping action.
I've done 10. What, you haven't done 10?
What do they taste like? Oh, they're amazing.
Three, two...
put down your utensils, you have finished.
So, now time for the inspection.
Do you have your fork ready, Major Midgely?
Bonnie? Don't eat mine. It'll make you ill.
Honestly, it's not nice.
Oh dear.
That's a nice one. Look at that. The top one got slightly overcooked.
One, two...
Quality rather than quantity here.
Those with the recipe made much more edible pancakes,
with Cath doing best.
Come on, Cath. Great they look lovely.
Like supermarket pancakes.
You've got loads. Look at you!
Again very good.
She's done well. She's smashed it, I think.
It's not a pancake.
Kelvin, the only one who refused to look at the recipe,
turned out a dog's dinner.
That is a frisbee.
Zero. I will see you back inside.
Somebody had got a recipe so I was like "Give us a look at the recipe"
then... yeah it worked.
Given his current position topping the leader board,
Kelvin's adherence to the rules isn't very typical of high achievers.
One study showed...
It's the person who wins the competition
who is more likely to behave dishonestly in subsequent tasks.
This is probably because they feel entitled,
they have won and therefore they feel entitled
to win at whatever cost.
What sports did you guys do? Yeah, what is your favourite thing?
Darts and dominoes.
Darts and dominoes? I'm good at dominoes.
Were people sporty at school? Cos I was really bad at school.
I tried to change that, but...
I was always sporty
but I was always slightly shorter than the other guys
so kinda like, the bigger kids would always be physically bigger
and always beat me.
I was never physically as big as some of the kids in school.
I knew there'd be my time when we're adults, on an even keel
and I would say now I'm a lot fitter than the average guy at school.
When I'm an adult then it comes down to how much effort you put in weekly
as to how fit you get and so that was when I made my transition
going into adulthood
and then starting being kind of better than the average.
As a firefighter we do have to be physically fit.
I train two hours a day, five to six days a week,
squatting and lunging and jogging out.
I just need to compete and if I compete in life I'm happy.
What makes humans so unusual
is we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good.
But how do we deal with the internal conflict
of wanting to win for ourselves but also help the group win?
Cadets, welcome to the Rank Above The Rest assault course.
It's designed to test your physical attributes and your skill set.
They think they're doing an assault course, which in a way they are,
but this is an assault course with a difference
because in order for them to complete it
somebody... at least one person
is going to have to sacrifice themselves.
And the first stage is a true test of altruism.
On this first stage here you're gonna be running between these trees
and coming under sniper fire from paintballs.
The first person through is the only one that's gonna be shot,
so you now have two minutes to discuss
who volunteers to take one for the team.
One cadet must volunteer to be a decoy,
but they will then be eliminated from the competition.
Who will make the sacrifice, and why?
I don't mind doing it...
The ethos of self-sacrifice is very much fed into our lives,
it is absolutely at the heart of many of the great religions,
that self-sacrifice is seen as the ultimate good thing.
Clare's just said she'll do it.
Yeah, I don't mind doing it as well though.
You wanna be shot at?
I think one of the key drivers will be social acceptance.
Is that actually you're in this group
and what you want to be seen as is...
A decent person.
By giving myself up everybody else is gonna laud me
and think I've done a fantastic thing.
I'm last, I've got nothing to lose so I can do it.
If it's the slowest you need to choose me.
Day one, they've gotta pick a key, and it was like the January sales
as they were fighting each other to get to a key.
Day two, having spent a long period of time together, bonding as a team
they're now trying to negotiate who should do it.
I think we're all happy to do it. Does anyone really want to?
Want to see what it's like to be shot at.
I don't really want to see what it's like.
I don't mind, is someone else putting themself forward?
Okay, we didn't expect that. No. Oh my goodness.
Interesting, it was Phil. Phil.
There you go.
Lying in second-to-last position, Phil has little to lose,
and by sacrificing himself perhaps he hopes to gain popularity.
Well done, Phil.
There's a lot of messing about and the girls saying this is gonna hurt
so I said "I'll do it, I don't mind getting hit."
Thanks, Phil. Thank you.
Being valiant, I don't know, I may be a soft touch like that.
Rucksacks and helmets on.
This is not a race, you just have to get through safely.
I can see the people with the paintball guns behind the tree.
On your marks, get set.
He got hit in the wrong spot, the only place he hasn't got protection.
Yeah, poor old Phil.
Phil is out of the race but his sacrifice means the others can go on.
The final obstacle is a wall that is so tall
they have to work together to get over it.
Come on, on my shoulders.
First up, the twins.
Okay. The twins, helping each other.
One goes up, one can pull down.
Kelvin helps his brother over the wall,
sacrificing his chance to win the race.
I feel like Phil and Kelvin were really good to make the sacrifices.
A bit more.
I said let me give you a lift up but he insisted that I went
so as a gentleman I went first.
I didn't think that the wall would jeopardise my position
with him being, I think it was 4th at the time,
so I let him go first.
Shall we do girls first?
The boys are being noble in helping the girls over.
Right, ready? Yeah.
One, two, three, go. Oh. Little bit more.
It may seem gallant, but is it more calculated than it appears?
We got the girls over that are not really a threat on the leader board.
And then obviously we knew that whoever went over
was gonna gain more points.
Now it's down to Joe and Kelvin
jostling for top position on the leader board
to decide who helps who.
That's when I got really nervous.
All I thought, if he goes up he's probably gonna get
first or second place in the obstacle course and overtake me.
If I go up, I'm guaranteed to win. Okay, so who's gonna do it?
Rock, paper, scissors?
That was... Very fair.
Yeah.
One, two, three.
Three, two, one. Keep going, keep pushing.
Ta, mate.
I felt good for helping everyone else
but I thought that was it for me.
Kelvin is forced to watch his arch rival Joe
make it over the finish line and pile on the points.
Twin Kelvin, is in the overall lead but in this final challenge
both Joe and Carl could still beat him.
Research shows we're more likely
to sacrifice ourselves for a close relative.
We'll test that with a game of psychological strategy
known as the prisoners dilemma.
Cadets, congratulations on completing the course.
First across the line was Carl, second was Joe, well done.
Carl and Joe, please take a seat.
Okay, let's see. Let's see what happens.
Carl, for winning the assault course you receive 200 merit points.
Those merit points have been placed into a pot,
what happens to the pot is up to you.
Joe, you have the chance to win those merit points from Carl.
Carl and Joe can share or steal.
If they both choose to share they get a hundred points each,
if they both steal they leave with nothing.
Do you understand?
Yes. Uh-huh.
What you gonna do?
Okay... so it was 200 points.
I know that 200 points'll get you first.
It will, but I know obviously you don't want me to be first
cos you'd prefer your brother, which is understandable.
Are you gonna share? You're not really telling me, are you?
We can... we could... we could share, yeah, we could share.
You're making me confident here.
No, I'm just trying to think what's the best angle.
Joe is trying to convince Carl and then he's gonna steal.
I think sharing's a good option,
I think that's the best option, don't you?
Are you gonna do it though? I know you're very competitive.
There is only one way Carl can guarantee
his twin brother Kelvin wins.
Let's share. Let's do it, Joe.
Okay? Have you made a decision?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Please reveal to me your decision.
They both double-cross the other.
You cheeky!
You have both chosen to steal. You receive zero merit points.
I would have rather Kelvin come first than someone else
just because I feel like a part of me's coming first
if you know what I mean.
What we've just seen is a beautiful example
of something called the selfish gene theory in action.
According to this theory, the main purpose of our existence
is to pass our genes on down the generations.
With identical twins they have identical genes
and therefore it makes sense for one twin
to sacrifice himself for the other
because that ensures that his brother's genes,
and therefore his genes, if you like, go on to victory.
Our competitive weekend is over. Time to read out the results.
Cadets,
congratulations on completing the Rank Above The Rest event.
We were very impressed. Well done.
This is the final leader board. In second place, Joe.
Congratulations, Joe.
Well done, Joe.
And our winner... it's kelvin.
Congratulations, Kelvin. There you go.
Congratulations, Kelvin. Thank you, Captain Black.
Sergeant Black
Give it back.
Give yourselves a round of applause.
Well done.
And now we have a very high-ranking guest.
Time to tell the cadets what this weekend's really been about.
Please welcome Dr Michael Mosley.
Hello. Hi there. Hello. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for having us.
We have Greg Whyte here,
Olympian and sports scientist, and Faye Didymus, sports scientist,
and we have been watching you with enormous interest
over the course of the last two days and also manipulating things
and generally messing around and enjoying ourselves
and it started with the choosing of the room keys.
We particularly admired Adam's tactic
which is known in evolutionary biology as the "sneaky fucker".
But obviously the purpose of competition
is really about impressing a member of the other sex.
And in the rowing competition we saw something very dramatic with Kelvin
and as soon as the attractive woman goes up, his performance,
his heart rate, everything rose and then as soon as she left
everything deflated almost immediately.
It was very, very striking.
One of the things we were really interested in,
the concept of sort of nature versus nurture in terms of competitiveness
and, you know, our twins Carl and Kelvin really...
cos what we were watching was it actually playing out.
But the other thing was the nature element of it.
We measured testosterone and the interesting thing is
that the two people with the highest testosterone levels
happened to be the two people who were probably
the most competitive amongst the entire group.
So it was really interesting from a nature and a nurture perspective.
One of the other things that we've been looking at is motivation
and one of my absolute highlights was Anita on the burpee challenge.
I don't know if you noticed
but we had a punishment and reward condition
and despite being in the punishment condition
you outperformed everybody with 41 burpees in a short period of time.
Maybe she likes punishment.
Exactly, and in the same activity
the twins, it was just absolutely classic
because Kelvin in the reward condition,
you outperformed your brother hugely,
by about 12 or 13 burpees I think,
so thank you, it's been absolutely fascinating.
I have to say, the interesting thing about the ice bucket challenge
is that it shows just how stupid competition is on some level.
(All laugh)
Over this weekend, we've seen a number of winning strategies at play,
but we've also seen an awful lot of cooperation
and I think it is that mix of competition and cooperation
that is absolutely key to the human success story.
I've surprised myself this weekend actually
because I came into it probably a little bit overconfident
and I assumed that being that competitive
would mean that I performed really well,
but realistically I was other people who are really competitive
and I thought that would really bother me
but in the team environment we've been in
it's become less about a competition between different people
and it's become more a team spirit.
I did do my best, I did try my best,
just gotta roll with the punches.
Losing by Kelvin isn't good,
he's gonna wear that medal around his neck for a long time
and I regret losing
but whatever we do next I'm gonna win, so it's fine.
First place! It feels great to be honest.
I said it from the start
that I don't think anyone could have beat me.
It's been hard, it's been fun
and being in first place makes it that much better.
(c) BBC Worldwide Ltd MMXVII
Captions (c) SBS Australia 2017