It's true that Sean rarely had a bad word for anyone. And for weeks on end he refused to join one of those brutal "alliances," which covertly and coolly decided whom to vote off the island. Indeed, he was so reluctant to harm his fellow human beings that, when forced by the show's rules to vote someone off, he didn't follow his strategic self-interest, but, rather, just voted alphabetically. "Everyone here is worthy of winning," Sean declared. But the production crew, according to Burnett, took a different view of Sean: He wanted to "look like the good guy on camera and thus build that television career he coveted." Besides, toward the end, when Sean's survival was threatened, he begged to join the very alliance he had deemed unethical. Burnett: "Sean completed his Faustian bargain by admitting that his strategy had nothing to do with his conscience—had never had anything to do with his conscience." He had just wanted to seem like a nice guy so that no one would want to vote him off the island. "My strategy is actually very sophisticated and well thought out," Sean said.

And what of Gretchen, the sweet but tough leader of the Pagong? She, too, refused to join a voting bloc on principle. And, unlike Sean, she aroused no dark suspicions among Survivor staffers. Burnett writes: "Gretchen's integrity was like a breath of fresh air. Mention of Gretchen's name in the production compound brought forth responses like 'Don't you just love her?' " But it turns out that Gretchen's refusal to act selfishly was grounded in an instinct that individual selectionists have no trouble accounting for: maternal devotion. She knew her children would be watching on TV, and—presumably having lectured them on the evils of cliqueishness—she wanted to set a noble example. "I don't want to do anything I'll be ashamed of," Burnett quotes her as saying. Besides, precisely because she had children and a loving husband, winning just didn't mean that much to her. "Unlike the rest of Pagong, she had an actual life back in America. … Gretchen was too tough to quit, but getting voted off wasn't going to break her heart."