Fake TV Game Show 'Tortures' Man, Shocks France
by Eleanor Beardsley
- March 18, 2010
France is reeling from a documentary about a psychological experiment disguised as a game show. Researchers staged a fictitious reality show to see how far people would go in obeying authority, especially if television reinforces that authority.
The disturbing results have alarmed the French.
The fictitious game show had all the trappings of a real TV quiz show, including a beautiful and well-known hostess, and a raucous audience. A group of contestants posed questions to a man sitting inside a box in front of them in an electric chair.
The hostess and a chanting audience urged the players — who had levers in front of them — to send jolts of electricity into the man in the box when he gave an incorrect answer.
Even when the player screamed out in pain for them to stop, 80 percent of the contestants kept zapping him. In reality, the man in the electric chair was an actor who wasn't really being shocked — but the players and the audience did not know that.
The documentary makers say reality television relies increasingly on violent, humiliating and cruel acts to boost ratings. They say they simply wanted to see if we would go so far as to kill someone for entertainment.
Christophe Nick produced the documentary, The Game of Death, with a group of scientists and researchers.
"Most of us think we have free thinking and so we are responsible for our acts," Nick says. "This experience shows that in certain circumstances, a power — the TV in this case — is able to make you do something you don't want to do."
The idea that something deeply rooted in the human psyche makes most of us unable to resist authority is not new. The French documentary was based on an American experiment carried out in the 1960s by psychologist Stanley Milgram.
Milgram had participants delivering what they believed were electric shocks to a man every time he answered a question incorrectly. In that experiment, 60 percent of participants obeyed the sadistic orders until the end.
The French documentary, which was broadcast in France on Wednesday night, included footage of the Milgram experiment.
Sociologist Jean Claude Kaufmann says the French version combines Milgram's use of authority with the power of live television. He says the result in the French experiment — a higher percentage of participants willing to shock the subject — shows that the manipulative power of television further increases people's willingness to obey.
Television talk shows ruminated over the documentary Thursday. Comparisons are being drawn to the manipulation of the masses in Nazi Germany. One of the game show participants, Jerome Pasanau, said in an interview that he was still haunted by the experience.
"I wanted to stop the whole time, but I just couldn't. I didn't have the will to do it. And that goes against my nature," he said. "I haven't really figured out why I did it."
Pasanau told the TV host that he felt intimidated and isolated on the fictitious game show set, and that the crowd was overbearing. The host countered by pulling up footage of Pasanau pumping 460 volts of electricity until the actor pretending to be electrocuted seems to keel over dead.
In the footage, the game show hostess yells: "And you've won!" Copyright 2010 National Public Radio
- My reaction - I believe that our society is willing to sell themselves for fame or even the possible chance of fame - with reality television we exploit value from taking advantage of people's lives and stupidity - even though the people on these shows actively give up their rights and basically are saying yes please take advantage of me - I have always enjoyed shows such as 'Real World Road Rules Challenge' or 'My Antonio' or even 'Jersey Shore' but after a discussion with a few people I have had to admit that these characters, despite willingly participating, are being exploited - and this poses the question is this okay? I feel in our society we try to justify such acts - Are we truly promoting the ethics and morals we want ourselves and our future generations to have? - This is a slippery slope and unfortunately when you do not respect yourself - or the people around you - you will begin to see more violent crimes and discrimination that is rooted in a warped sense of reality and ignorance - in the genocide unit my classes are currently being introduced to there is a discussion of the stages of genocide - the first three stages are pretty innocent but there is a quick and rapid decline - first is classification - the putting of people into groups - this is natural and something we are taught to do - to identify what something is like or different from - let us find the Chicago Cubs fans versus the White Sox fans or triangles from squares or nouns from verbs or boys from girls - the parallels and examples could go on and on - next is symbolization - and that is simply giving these classifications names and symbols and that could be the colors of a sports team or the names of a shape or the editing notations of nouns and verbs - etc. - the third stage that begins the process of discrimination and is on the path towards genocide (now I realize that I am thinking worst case scenario but it is amazing when you look at these situations how fast it goes from discrimination to polarization (separating groups) and sometimes this stage is simply like the white American treatment of blacks or the internment camps during World War 2) but the third stage is dehumanization - and whenever you begin to treat people with less respect it is easier to justify the mistreatment of these people
by Eleanor Beardsley
- March 18, 2010
France is reeling from a documentary about a psychological experiment disguised as a game show. Researchers staged a fictitious reality show to see how far people would go in obeying authority, especially if television reinforces that authority.
The disturbing results have alarmed the French.
The fictitious game show had all the trappings of a real TV quiz show, including a beautiful and well-known hostess, and a raucous audience. A group of contestants posed questions to a man sitting inside a box in front of them in an electric chair.
The hostess and a chanting audience urged the players — who had levers in front of them — to send jolts of electricity into the man in the box when he gave an incorrect answer.
Even when the player screamed out in pain for them to stop, 80 percent of the contestants kept zapping him. In reality, the man in the electric chair was an actor who wasn't really being shocked — but the players and the audience did not know that.
The documentary makers say reality television relies increasingly on violent, humiliating and cruel acts to boost ratings. They say they simply wanted to see if we would go so far as to kill someone for entertainment.
Christophe Nick produced the documentary, The Game of Death, with a group of scientists and researchers.
"Most of us think we have free thinking and so we are responsible for our acts," Nick says. "This experience shows that in certain circumstances, a power — the TV in this case — is able to make you do something you don't want to do."
The idea that something deeply rooted in the human psyche makes most of us unable to resist authority is not new. The French documentary was based on an American experiment carried out in the 1960s by psychologist Stanley Milgram.
Milgram had participants delivering what they believed were electric shocks to a man every time he answered a question incorrectly. In that experiment, 60 percent of participants obeyed the sadistic orders until the end.
The French documentary, which was broadcast in France on Wednesday night, included footage of the Milgram experiment.
Sociologist Jean Claude Kaufmann says the French version combines Milgram's use of authority with the power of live television. He says the result in the French experiment — a higher percentage of participants willing to shock the subject — shows that the manipulative power of television further increases people's willingness to obey.
Television talk shows ruminated over the documentary Thursday. Comparisons are being drawn to the manipulation of the masses in Nazi Germany. One of the game show participants, Jerome Pasanau, said in an interview that he was still haunted by the experience.
"I wanted to stop the whole time, but I just couldn't. I didn't have the will to do it. And that goes against my nature," he said. "I haven't really figured out why I did it."
Pasanau told the TV host that he felt intimidated and isolated on the fictitious game show set, and that the crowd was overbearing. The host countered by pulling up footage of Pasanau pumping 460 volts of electricity until the actor pretending to be electrocuted seems to keel over dead.
In the footage, the game show hostess yells: "And you've won!" Copyright 2010 National Public Radio
- My reaction - I believe that our society is willing to sell themselves for fame or even the possible chance of fame - with reality television we exploit value from taking advantage of people's lives and stupidity - even though the people on these shows actively give up their rights and basically are saying yes please take advantage of me - I have always enjoyed shows such as 'Real World Road Rules Challenge' or 'My Antonio' or even 'Jersey Shore' but after a discussion with a few people I have had to admit that these characters, despite willingly participating, are being exploited - and this poses the question is this okay? I feel in our society we try to justify such acts - Are we truly promoting the ethics and morals we want ourselves and our future generations to have? - This is a slippery slope and unfortunately when you do not respect yourself - or the people around you - you will begin to see more violent crimes and discrimination that is rooted in a warped sense of reality and ignorance - in the genocide unit my classes are currently being introduced to there is a discussion of the stages of genocide - the first three stages are pretty innocent but there is a quick and rapid decline - first is classification - the putting of people into groups - this is natural and something we are taught to do - to identify what something is like or different from - let us find the Chicago Cubs fans versus the White Sox fans or triangles from squares or nouns from verbs or boys from girls - the parallels and examples could go on and on - next is symbolization - and that is simply giving these classifications names and symbols and that could be the colors of a sports team or the names of a shape or the editing notations of nouns and verbs - etc. - the third stage that begins the process of discrimination and is on the path towards genocide (now I realize that I am thinking worst case scenario but it is amazing when you look at these situations how fast it goes from discrimination to polarization (separating groups) and sometimes this stage is simply like the white American treatment of blacks or the internment camps during World War 2) but the third stage is dehumanization - and whenever you begin to treat people with less respect it is easier to justify the mistreatment of these people
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