Contestants Turn Torturers

[BG45]

[url="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iGLMQkfLetC9KpyILzsqsf215lvQ"]Contestants turn torturers in French game show experiment[/url]

[quote]By Roland Lloyd Parry (AFP) – 13 hours ago

PARIS — Game show contestants turn torturers in a new psychological experiment for French television, zapping a man with electricity until he cries for mercy -- then zapping him again until he seems to drop dead.

"The Game of Death" has all the trappings of a traditional television quiz show, with a roaring crowd and a glamorous and well-known hostess urging the players on under gaudy studio lights.

But the contestants did not know they were taking part in an experiment to find out whether television could push them to outrageous lengths, and which has prompted comparisons with the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

"We were amazed to find that 81 percent of the participants obeyed" the sadistic orders of the television presenter, said Christophe Nick, the maker of the documentary for the state-owned France 2 channel which airs Wednesday.

"They are not equipped to disobey," he added. "They don't want to do it, they try to convince the authority figure that they should stop, but they don't manage to," he told AFP.

Nick and a team of psychologists recruited 80 volunteers, telling them they were taking part in a pilot for a new television show.

The game: posing questions to another "player" and punishing him with up to 460 volts of electricity when he gets them wrong -- even until his cries of "Let me go!" fall silent and he appears to have died.

[b]Not knowing that the screaming victim is really an actor, the apparently reluctant contestants yield to the orders of the presenter and chants of "Punishment!" from a studio audience who also believed the game was real.

Nick said 80 percent of the contestants went all the way, zapping the victim with the maximum 460 volts until he appeared to die. Out of 80 players, just 16 walked out.[/b]

One contestant interviewed afterwards said she went along with the torture despite knowing that her own grandparents were Jews who had been persecuted by the Nazis.

"Since I was a little girl, I have always asked myself why they (the Nazis) did it. How could they obey such orders? And there I was, obeying them myself," said Sophie, quoted in a book by the film makers.

"I was worried about the contestant," said another contestant. "At the same time, I was afraid to spoil the programme."

The experiment was modelled on an infamous study at Yale University in the 1960s, which used similar methods to examine how obedient citizens could come to take part in mass murder.

Some observers were sceptical of the manipulative way the participants were handled.

Jacques Semelin, a psychologist and historian who studies genocide and totalitarianism, pointed out that the participants were made to sign a contract obliging them to obey the presenter's instructions.

"There are elements of manipulation from the start," said Jacques Semelin, a psychologist and historian who studies genocide and totalitarianism.

"They are obedient, but it's more than mere obedience -- there is the audience, the cameras everywhere."

But for the film makers, the manipulative power of television was exactly the point.

"The questioners are ... in the grip of the authority of television," said Jean-Leon Beauvois, a psychologist who took part in the documentary.

"When it decides to abuse its power, television can do anything to anybody," said Nick. "It has an absolutely terrifying power."[/quote]

The bolding is my own emphasis. Disgusting...

[Nihil Obstat]

This is pretty much the same thing as the Milgram Experiment, isn't it?

[cmotherofpirl]

THis is simply a repeat of a classic experiment with TV thrown in for good measure.

[Hilde]

Wow, really?

[cmotherofpirl]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

[Nihil Obstat]

I can never decide which is more disturbing- the Stanford Prison experiment or the Milgram experiment.

[jeffpugh]

Stanford Prison one is pretty freaky.

[afro_john]

The Stanford prison experiment was extreme, peoples lives were really messed up from that.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='afrojohn' date='16 March 2010 - 09:03 PM' timestamp='1268791397' post='2074369']
The Stanford prison experiment was extreme, peoples lives were really messed up from that.
[/quote]
Definitely very unethical. It should have been stopped far sooner.

[brandelynmarie]

One of the saints (I forget which one!) had a vision of a box with moving pictures that led people away from God ...


This also reminds me of another experiment where people were sent to a specific building (for perhaps a test?) at a certain time & another person was planted near the building appearing to be in distress or needing help...It was amazing how many people did not stop to help their neighbor in need...

Edited March 17, 2010 by brandelynmarie

[Totus Tuus]

Well this is a depressing thread.

Edited March 17, 2010 by Totus Tuus

[laetitia crucis]

That is so disturbing and... [i]scary[/i]. *shudders*

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='brandelynmarie' date='16 March 2010 - 10:10 PM' timestamp='1268791813' post='2074377']
One of the saints (I forget which one!) had a vision of a box with moving pictures that led people away from God ...
[/quote]

I first heard this attributed to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, but I could be mistaken.

[BG45]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='16 March 2010 - 10:10 PM' timestamp='1268791809' post='2074376']
Definitely very unethical. It should have been stopped far sooner.
[/quote]

Except that the professor in charge had slipped too far into his own role as warden to realize things were going wrong... x.x

And yes, this is a new twist on the old Milgram Experiment, but still...depressing, scary, and not giving me much hope in my fellow human beings.

[brandelynmarie]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='17 March 2010 - 09:17 AM' timestamp='1268828279' post='2074517']
I first heard this attributed to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, but I could be mistaken.
[/quote]


I think you are right!