A French TV documentary features people in a spoof game show administering what they are told are near lethal electric shocks to rival contestants. Those taking part are told to pull levers to inflict shocks - increasing in voltage - upon their opponents.
Although unaware that the contestants were actors and there was no electrical current, 82% of participants in the Game of Death agreed to pull the lever. Programme makers say they wanted to expose the dangers of reality TV shows.
They say the documentary shows how many participants in the setting of a TV show will agree to act against their own principles or moral codes when ordered to do something extreme. The Game of Death has all the trappings of a traditional TV quiz show, with a roaring crowd chanting "punishment" and a glamorous hostess urging the players on.
Christophe Nick, the maker of the documentary, said they were "amazed" that so many participants obeyed the sadistic orders of the game show presenter. "They are not equipped to disobey," he said. "They don't want to do it, they try to convince the authority figure that they should stop, but they don't manage to."
5 comments:
After all the horrible things in recent history from the camps in WorldWar 2, the turturings by also Western Allied forces in Viet-Nam, the American test that this French show was based on, Abu Graib, wrongdoins in Gitmo, this French show--- Now stay convinced that anyone of us really only would do the Honourable thing when put under any pressure to not do horrible and criminal things to fellow humans......
However highly uncomfortable this feels- I myself am not so sure anymore and I dearly hope I wouyld never be put to that test...
I didn't see the french programme but I did see the original version from a few years back.
You're probably referring to Milgram's experiment. I thought it was an interesting set up but to put this as televised entertainment is just wrong...
You'd have a hard time getting Milgard's experiment past a University ethics committee nowadays, and you certainly couldn't do it like this.
I imagine the "contestants" (test subjects) are probably pretty scarred after this experience. After all, most of them are probably the kind of people who, like me and Foreigner1, would have thought they'd never "pull the switch" in a situation like this. While I'd still like to think I wouldn't do it, I also really hope I'm never put in that situation, just... in case. And if I did pull the switch, even if it turned out to be a hoax, I'd be devastated by self-reproach afterwards. If you were doing a "real" experiment like this, you'd have to provide some kind of counselling/after-care for the subjects.
And then there's the confidentiality thing. In a real experiment, you have to protect the identities of your subjects. These people were broadcast on national television (and now the internet) giving in to their worst impulses. That's got to affect their relationships with friends and acquaintances.
besides the fact that you know to be in a tv show kinda implies there is a fake element to it..
I would imagine it is easier to say yes to do something like this when asked on a tv show then it would be on a real life serious situation.
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