Psychology team analyses star-studded Celebrity Traitors 2026 line-up

Dr Kevin Hochard, Dr Clea Wright, and Professor Lisa Oakley have recorded dozens of episodes as part of their Psychology Of... series which can be found on Spotify, mainly on The Traitors and its celebrity spin-off, as well as subjects such as reading fiction, exercise, sleep and attraction.

Now the team, which will be returning to the podcast studio to record analysis of the second Celebrity Traitors series when it airs this autumn, has reacted to the show’s line-up which the BBC announced earlier this month.

The new series will see actors Richard E Grant, Michael Sheen, Jerry Hall and Miranda Hart compete with comedians James Acaster, Joanne McNally, Joe Lycett and a host of other famous faces, as they are assigned the roles of ‘faithfuls’ and ‘traitors’.

Faithfuls have the task of finding who the traitors are and banishing them, while the traitors’ task is to eliminate all the faithfuls. In the first series, ‘traitor’ Alan Carr emerged victorious in a final watched by 15 million people, including the hooked Psychology team.

Clea said: “I think this is a great celebrity line-up. I would love Richard E Grant to be a traitor because I think he would be irresistible as an evil genius, and as he is such a legend I think he will be revered by the other players and he would be difficult to topple. Jerry Hall has decades of navigating all kinds of social situations and I suspect that she is shrewd at judging people, and I think she could be influential. I also think that Miranda will be very popular and would be a natural faithful – for that reason I would select her as a traitor!”

Highlighting contestants’ personalities, Clea said: “Broadcasters Professor Hannah Fry and Amol Rajan are both very intelligent and would probably apply a very logical approach to traitor-hunting, which we have seen can be helpful from the last series in Nick Mohammed, before he was derailed at the end. However, sometimes other players are suspicious of high intelligence.

“Comedians Romesh Ranganathan and Rob Beckett are good friends so the obvious thing to do would be to make one of them a traitor, but as they did that with Alan Carr and Paloma Faith last year, the producers may not want to repeat that. I think they would be hilarious as traitors together, and it would be interesting to see their loyalties being tested as eventually all traitors have to consider turning on each other.”

Lisa added: “Comedians may well come under greater scrutiny this year, as Alan won last year. There may be what we call vicarious learning - ie, learning from a previous situation and applying it to this. But, of course, the flaw in this is no-one has any idea who the traitors are.

“Also, it may be that natural humour is interpreted as suspicious in a way it wasn't last time. Contrary to this is what we know about humour, which includes building bonds and relieving stress, so the comedians may get a harder time or their humour could be their biggest strength.”

Kevin added: “As the youngest players in the castle, actors Bella Ramsey and Sebastian Croft might benefit from other players trying to protect them. But I would keep guard up around Bella in particular. We've seen what a great actor they are since they were young. Perhaps host Claudia Winkelman will think that is traitor material.”

The Psychology team will be hosting a Traitors-based event at Chester’s Picturehouse in July as part of this year’s University’s Festival of Ideas.

The team will also be busy in the podcast studio in the coming months before The Celebrity Traitors airs, recording episodes on the themes of families, the football World Cup, gaming, humour and education.

To catch up on all the episodes released so far, visit the Psychology team’s Spotify page.  

Image: Dr Kevin Hochard, Professor Lisa Oakley and Dr Clea Wright speaking about The Traitors at the University of Chester’s Festival of Ideas.