Adaryn
The Living Force
_http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article7041310.ece
02/26/10
Reality television often ends in humiliation and ridicule for those taking part — but who would be prepared to take part in a game show that featured torture or death?
The answer is most of us, judging by the results of a French experiment that involved asking people to inflict electric shocks on a fellow contestant in what they thought was a new reality TV concept.
Eighty per cent of the participants ignored pleas to stop and shrieks of pain as they continued increasing the voltage in response to wrong answers on Zone Xtrême.
“Is he dead?” asked one contestant when the voltage reached 400 and the victim fell silent.
In fact, Laurent Le Doyen was simulating pain. He is an actor and was asked to play the pivotal role in research that has given rise to a television documentary to be screened by the France 2 channel next month. The French study is a variant of a celebrated experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram, an American social psychologist, in the 1960s. Milgram told volunteers that they were taking part in an experiment to analyse memory and ordered them to inflict electric shocks on a student. More than 60 per cent did so, demonstrating their willingness to put aside moral imperatives “on the command of an authority”.
In the French test, 80 volunteers were told that they were taking part in a pilot for a new game show which involved memorising words and punishing mistakes. Almost half were delighted by the concept. “It’s violent, yeah, I love it,” said one, while 28 appeared indifferent and 14 were puzzled. Christophe Nick, the producer of the documentary, and Michel Eltchaninoff, a philosopher, publish a book, L’Experience Extreme, on the research next week. Tania Young, a television presenter who was hosting the mock game show, insisted that even the reticent volunteers should continue — and almost all did.
Mr Nick and Mr Eltchaninoff said that they witnessed participants struggling between revulsion at the pain they were causing and their ability to confront the authority of the television star. Most ended up obeying Miss Young. Mr Nick and Mr Eltchaninoff said that it would be easy to dismiss the contestants as sadistic, but they were ordinary members of society. “The lesson is not that people are stupid; it is that the television has a crazy power,” Mr Nick told The Times.
02/26/10
Reality television often ends in humiliation and ridicule for those taking part — but who would be prepared to take part in a game show that featured torture or death?
The answer is most of us, judging by the results of a French experiment that involved asking people to inflict electric shocks on a fellow contestant in what they thought was a new reality TV concept.
Eighty per cent of the participants ignored pleas to stop and shrieks of pain as they continued increasing the voltage in response to wrong answers on Zone Xtrême.
“Is he dead?” asked one contestant when the voltage reached 400 and the victim fell silent.
In fact, Laurent Le Doyen was simulating pain. He is an actor and was asked to play the pivotal role in research that has given rise to a television documentary to be screened by the France 2 channel next month. The French study is a variant of a celebrated experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram, an American social psychologist, in the 1960s. Milgram told volunteers that they were taking part in an experiment to analyse memory and ordered them to inflict electric shocks on a student. More than 60 per cent did so, demonstrating their willingness to put aside moral imperatives “on the command of an authority”.
In the French test, 80 volunteers were told that they were taking part in a pilot for a new game show which involved memorising words and punishing mistakes. Almost half were delighted by the concept. “It’s violent, yeah, I love it,” said one, while 28 appeared indifferent and 14 were puzzled. Christophe Nick, the producer of the documentary, and Michel Eltchaninoff, a philosopher, publish a book, L’Experience Extreme, on the research next week. Tania Young, a television presenter who was hosting the mock game show, insisted that even the reticent volunteers should continue — and almost all did.
Mr Nick and Mr Eltchaninoff said that they witnessed participants struggling between revulsion at the pain they were causing and their ability to confront the authority of the television star. Most ended up obeying Miss Young. Mr Nick and Mr Eltchaninoff said that it would be easy to dismiss the contestants as sadistic, but they were ordinary members of society. “The lesson is not that people are stupid; it is that the television has a crazy power,” Mr Nick told The Times.