Salem witch trials help explain why Faithfuls fail to spot real Traitors, says David Olusoga

A panel linked difficulties in identifying traitors to historical patterns of denunciation. Suspicion can move quickly from doubt to belief, then to condemnation, especially when confident voices start rumors. Overconfidence in spotting hidden enemies is tied to mechanisms seen in Stalin’s Russia, the Salem witch trials, and the Spanish Inquisition. The myth of the Gestapo illustrates how arrests and imprisonments can begin through a phone call, a letter, or a personal accusation rather than surveillance. Once a rumor gains momentum, it can shift seamlessly into official action. Roundtable dynamics can create a wave of certainty that contestants feel they cannot resist, similar to how framed people in show trials shrink and go silent.

"The roundtable where contestants discuss who should be cast out was somewhat frightening because of the velocity in which something goes from a suspicion to belief, to faith, to condemnation, said the broadcaster and historian David Olusoga. He spoke as part of a panel at Hay festival on Tuesday, alongside fellow cast members Clare Balding and Harriet Tyce."

"Asked what overconfidence in identifying traitors and hidden enemies had led to historically, Olusoga said: It's at the heart of what happens in Stalin's Russia, I think it's at the heart of what happens in the Salem witch trials at the end of the 17th century, of the Spanish inquisition. The idea of denouncement that what we are swayed by is a voice that is confident, that begins the rumours was the most important thing."

"Olusoga said the best example of this was the myth of the Gestapo: arrests and imprisonments weren't started by surveillance by the Gestapo, they were started because somebody phoned them up, or someone sent them a letter, or somebody popped in and had a word with them. It was somebody saying, I think it's them, I heard them', he continued. It was setting up the rumour, and once that snowball is running, it passed seamlessly from rumour to official process in a way that's absolutely terrifying."

"Balding agreed, saying that you can feel the wave coming towards you, and you're thinking, I can't fight this wave, I don't know how to defend myself'. Olusoga responded that what Balding described could be seen in footage of Russian show trials. When people have been set up and framed, and they've had denouncements and people shouting about them as enemies of the people, they go silent, they shrink."

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