The Psychology of Escape Rooms – What to know

If you’ve ever tried to solve an escape room, then you probably already know how enjoyable they are. Unfamiliar puzzles, hidden clues, and a common goal shared by all the participants involved—these are all crucial elements that comprise what we typically know about escape rooms.

However, there is much more than meets the eye whenever you play this type of game. There is an invisible—yet almost palpable—energy that permeates these rooms, and a lot of that has to do with our own mental and emotional states. You see, escape rooms trigger many responses in our brains, which is part of the reason why they’re so fun.

In this article, we’ll try to delve deeper into the subject as we go through three common occurrences that take place in escape rooms, the psychological factors associated with these situations, and what it all means in relation to our enjoyment of the game. Let’s begin.

Not seeing clues hidden in plain sight

Escape rooms are often intricately decorated, and many of these visual elements mean that clues can effectively be hidden right under players’ noses. This is a phenomenon called inattentional blindness in psychology, and its effects can be put to great use in escape room settings.

Keys to overcoming the puzzles and obstacles found in escape rooms can be sitting right in front of the players, and they’ll probably become incredibly annoyed (or incredibly amused) that they failed to spot the clues even then. Either way, the phenomenon can bring entire groups together, and will definitely make you want to step up your game the next time around.

Forming relationships between totally unrelated elements

You might be the type of player who, upon entering an escape room, takes a step back and tries to work out all the information presented. If it isn’t you, then it’s definitely someone else within your group. Whoever it might be, if they spend too much time trying to find meaning amongst the madness, they’d probably start making connections where there are none.

This is something called illusory correlation, which is another psychological phenomenon that is meant to throw escape room players off their game. It serves to redirect your attention and add a level of challenge to the game—without which, escaping the room might be too easy and thus neither fun nor rewarding for the players.

Looking back at the game and thinking you could have easily beaten it

Whether you successfully made it out or not, there’s a good chance that you’ll leave the experience feeling that you could have performed a lot better than you did. This is something called hindsight bias in psychology, and it basically means that people are likely to view an event that has already passed (ie. playing the escape room) as more predictable than it actually was.

When this happens—and it usually does with most groups—players start to imagine different instances wherein they could have played better. If the game gives the impression that it could have been easier had you only been smarter or faster, you and your group are more likely to want to keep trying.

Wrapping Up

There are many more psychological aspects to escape rooms, and we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface with this article. Based on what we discussed, however, it’s already pretty clear that there is a lot more going on in the background in these types of games.

If you’re looking for an escape room adventure in Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch and Sarasota, Florida, get in touch with Premier Escape Adventures today! We have different packages that will be able to test the skills of each member in your group.

Book now here!