Squid Game Will Soon Be Used to Help Teach Economics Classes

Netflix today, the classroom tomorrow?

Picture this… You’re in class and the teacher revs up the TV for some educational viewing… You settle in, get ready to yawn, and on pops Squid Game.

Yup, the smash-hit dystopian Netflix series that took the world by storm last year.

This may soon become a reality for first-year business and economics students all over the world.

A new paper by the Monash Business School reveals using the survival strategies in Squid Game can revolutionise the way students learn Game Theory (one of the most challenging concepts of introductory economics.)

So much so, first-year microeconomics at the Monash Business School will be using the Squid Game insights from as soon as semester one.

So, uh, how on earth does a dystopian tv show and the business world link?

Co-author of the paper and Monash Business School Professor Wayne Geerling said the players in Squid Game are a metaphor for companies and how they interact.

“We have examined the strategic interactions of Squid Game in comparison to real-life business,” he said.

In the show, players make decisions in real-time without full information, and to survive they have to work out their strategies to maximise their chances of winning. Just like the ruthless real world of business.

So, Professor Geerling has developed a series of teaching guides with Squid Game scenes and strategies that can be used by any teacher around the world.

It’s an innovative stray from the usual “by-the-book” nature of economics and business studies.

Professor Geerling says students struggle to think strategically when they're being taught through traditional methods alone.

“Pop culture, such as Squid Game, can be used as an effective medium to break down barriers to learning because it taps into everyday life and allows students to see connections between abstract theory and real-world applications,” he said.

Excuse me while I play some cheeky "Squid Games" at home (without the violence obviously) and patiently wait for season two.