French Documentary Shows Normal People Are Willing to Kill on Television
source: http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/03/18/french-documentary-shows-normal-people-are-willing-to-ki...
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It’s been almost 40 years since psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted his infamous Yale experiments, in which he showed that people are willing to electrocute a random stranger to the point of death in the context of a science experiment. Milgram was trying to show something about the human condition, and gleaned insights that were particularly useful in light of the Holocaust: normal, everyday people can easily be swayed by structures of authority. And theoretically, the more conscious we are of this, the more likely we are to be able to resist it.
So it’s now forty years later and it’s clear that humanity has learned nothing. At least, that’s what a documentary The Game of Death (Le Jeu Du Mort), which aired last night on French television, would have you believe.
The documentary led 80 participants into thinking they were shooting a French pilot for a new reality TV series called Zone Xtreme (not a real show). In the fake show, fake “contestants” played by actors were forced to answer questions. If they answered incorrectly, one of the participants would be asked to give the contestant an electric shock. No shocks were actually administered; the actor contestants pretended to get electrocuted. Egged on by the beautiful TV hostess and an apparently bloodthirsty studio audience shouting “Punishment!,” only 16 of the 80 participants stopped before reaching the final, lethal 460 volt shock. People apparently kept up the shocks even when the contestant appeared to be dead or unresponsive.
Read more: French Documentary Shows Normal People Are Willing to Kill on Television | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/03/18/french-documentary-shows-normal-people-are-w...
So it’s now forty years later and it’s clear that humanity has learned nothing. At least, that’s what a documentary The Game of Death (Le Jeu Du Mort), which aired last night on French television, would have you believe.
The documentary led 80 participants into thinking they were shooting a French pilot for a new reality TV series called Zone Xtreme (not a real show). In the fake show, fake “contestants” played by actors were forced to answer questions. If they answered incorrectly, one of the participants would be asked to give the contestant an electric shock. No shocks were actually administered; the actor contestants pretended to get electrocuted. Egged on by the beautiful TV hostess and an apparently bloodthirsty studio audience shouting “Punishment!,” only 16 of the 80 participants stopped before reaching the final, lethal 460 volt shock. People apparently kept up the shocks even when the contestant appeared to be dead or unresponsive.
Read more: French Documentary Shows Normal People Are Willing to Kill on Television | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/03/18/french-documentary-shows-normal-people-are-w...
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- tags:
- Documentary, Psychology, French, Milgram
