Given that the Milgram experiment is so basic. I'm still surprised, or rather disappointed that people still fall for this. I recently read that the classic Migram study was replicated, with similar results. What's really amazing about those results is that the students who participated had recently finished a chapter on the social psychology of obedience and the Milgram study. In the 45 years or so since Milgram not much has changed.
larry On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 2:21 PM, Michael Dinowitz <[email protected]> wrote: > > I Love Milgram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment). No > one is better at showing humanity at it's best, subjugating itself to > those in 'authority'. But his experiments are usually seen as > 'ethically challenging', making repeats problematic. Enter the french. > One of their state run TV channels had a fake game show where > participants we ordered to shock someone literally to death...and 81% > of them did. OK, their were only 80 participants, which is probably > not statistically significant, but still... (Milgram got 65% in the > early 1960's) > I'm waiting for it to come to America. I can see it now. Really. > > --- > > French polemic over fake game show electrocutions > http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jOm8Ab1Orbr8WN0TmDrYv9u7N-TQD9EGKHDO2 > > PARIS A state-run TV channel is stirring controversy with a > documentary about a fake game show in which credulous participants > obey orders to deliver increasingly powerful electric shocks to a man, > who is really an actor, until he appears to die. > > The producers of "The Game of Death," broadcast Wednesday night, > wanted to examine both what they call TV's mind-numbing power to > suspend morality, and the striking human willingness to obey orders. > > "Television is a power. We know it, but it's theoretical," producer > Christophe Nick told the daily Le Parisien. "I wondered: Is it so > important that it can turn us into potential executioners?" > > In the end, more than four in five "players" gave the maximum jolt. > > "People never would have obeyed if they didn't have trust," Nick was > quoted as saying in the paper's Wednesday edition. "They told > themselves, 'TV knows what it's doing.'" > > While "Le Jeu de la Mort" (The Game of Death) is mainly an indictment > of television's alleged power over society, Nick also takes issue with > viewers who let themselves get taken in by today's TV universe such > as with talk shows. > > "People are put on a set, where they speak even about their sexual > problems," he told Le Parisien. "We wait for the admission, the flaw. > Faced with exhibitionists, TV viewers have become voyeurs." > > The experiment was based on the work of late psychologist Stanley > Milgram, who carried out a now-classic experiment at Yale University > in the 1960s. It found that most ordinary people if encouraged by an > authoritative-seeming scientist would administer ostensibly > dangerous electric shocks to others. > > At its root, both Milgram's work and the made-for-TV experiment > broadly replicating the lab work unearth a question many people > worldwide have contemplated after 20th-century genocides like the > Holocaust: Would I, too, be capable of following orders to inflict > pain or even kill? > > France-2 billed the fake game show as the subject of a sociological > and psychological documentary, and added a warning: "What we are going > to watch is extremely tough. But it's only television." > > The newspaper Liberation had a different take, with the headline: > "Television tests its limits." > > Recruiters found 80 "contestants" and said they would take part in a > real TV show called Zone Xtreme. Each was presented to a man said to > be another contestant in reality an actor whose job was to answer > a series of questions while strapped into an electrifiable chair in an > isolated booth. > > In a game of word associations, the actor identified as "Jean-Paul" > was told that any wrong answers would merit punishment in the form of > electric shocks of 20 to 460 volts, zapped by a console operated by > the contestant. > > As the wrong answers invariably roll in and the voltage increases, the > presenter, a well-known TV weatherwoman on France-2, exhorts > contestants not to bend to his cries of agony. A goading studio > audience adds to the pressure. > > The contestants' identities were withheld, but their faces were in > view during the show. > > As wrong answers pile up, and the voltage increases, Jean-Paul pleads: > "Get me out of here, please! I don't want to play anymore" and finally > stops answering, then falls silent despite the electric jolts. > Contestants grow increasingly edgy but told to continue, the vast > majority do. > > In the final tally, 81 percent of the contestants turned up the juice > to the maximum said to be potentially deadly level, according to > "L'Experience Extreme" (The Extreme Experience), a book authored by > Nick, the producer. Only 16 people among the 80 who took part backed > out. > > European TV has explored the limits of morality before. > > In the Netherlands in 2007, a game show titled the "Big Donor Show" > was branded as tasteless and unethical for offering a kidney as top > prize. Its aim, to raise awareness about those awaiting for organ > transplants, appeared to work: over 12,000 people registered as organ > donors after the broadcast. That was at least three times the normal > average for a month. > > Nick said the experience was an awakening for many participants. > > "People were convinced that they'd never succumb to this and then > they discovered they did it in spite of themselves," Nick told The > Associated Press in an interview, referring to the participants. "They > were stupefied." > > The experience, he said, continued to effect participants even after > it was over. Some grew bolder about standing up to their bosses, or > admitted their homosexuality to their families, he said. > > "For many, it changed their lives," > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? 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