Morally
Shocking
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 told
AFP. "They don't want to do it, they try to convince the authority figure
that they should stop, but they don't manage to."
Yale experiment
The results reflect those of a similar experiment carried
out almost 50 years ago at
Mr Nick says that his experiment shows that the TV element further
increases people's willingness to obey. "With Milgram,
62% of people obeyed an abject authority. In the setting of television, it's 80%," he told Reuters.
The documentary is to be broadcast on the state-owned
Taken from BBC News,
17/3/10
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8571929.stm