This page is part of a scientific study on human and LLM reasoning in social deduction games, conducted by the Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University.
Secret Mafia is a social deduction game in which players are secretly assigned to one of two teams: the Innocents (the majority) or the Mafia (a hidden minority). The game alternates between two phases: Night and Day.
Each game has 6–7 players: 2 Mafia members, 1 Doctor, 1 Detective, and the rest Villagers.
Mafia member Knows the identity of all other Mafia members. Works with them to eliminate Innocents during the Night phase without being detected during the Day phase.
Villager (plain Innocent) Has no special abilities. Must rely on discussion and reasoning to identify and vote out Mafia members.
Doctor (Innocent) Each night, may secretly choose one player to protect. If the Mafia targets that player the same night, the elimination is blocked and the player survives.
Detective (Innocent) Each night, may secretly investigate one player and learn whether that player is a Mafia member or not. The Detective must use this information carefully — revealing it openly may make them a Mafia target.
All players act in secret:
At the end of the night, any elimination is announced to all players — unless the Doctor protected the targeted player, in which case no one is eliminated.
All players openly discuss who they believe the Mafia members are. Mafia members participate in this discussion too, attempting to blend in, cast suspicion on Innocents, and avoid detection.
After discussion, all surviving players vote to eliminate one player. The player with the most votes is removed from the game regardless of their actual role. The eliminated player’s role is not revealed. Depending on the game progression, you may be able to infer whether the player was Innocent or Mafia.
In this study, you will not play a live game. Instead, you will be shown snapshots of ongoing game states and asked to reason about the situation — what you believe, who you suspect, and what you would do next.
You do not need prior experience with Mafia or Werewolf to participate.