Contestants turn torturers in French TV experiment

Originally posted by smashing31
It really makes you think about who we would be if we were devoid of outside influences. I like to think that I am true to myself, and somewhat original, but if a majority of the people can be influenced to do something so terrible, what things are we being influnced to do on a smaller scale everyday! It makes you think that maybe we really are not ourselves at all, but just a conglomeration of various influences!

No I say people like you and me are aware of the danger's of the masses being manipulated and lied to on a daily basis by their governments and more influenced by the Global Elites plans for us all.

In the long run we will become poorer but the very few of us which is more of an minority that are awoken need somehow find more courage within ourselves to help the majority of society to wake upto the mind-alterting big brother programmes that are in hold for us whether it be cctv's camera's in business parks, shop's, centres, schools, streets, airports, banks, even toilets(thats sick) and influence the majority of the masses to believe it is all for safety against crime when the crimes are always been committed by the very people we put into power and the mass media companies.

When we people wake up to this horror instead of lieing to themselves and accepting the lies either because they are afraid of the truth and hide in shear ignorance or whether they just hold "i don't care" attitude towards most forms/beings/objects of life and do not take into consideration and respect for other's as I was taught.

I am part of this younger generation and yet I have started young to help people become aware because like most of you older generations most of today would be expected to forgot the manners and self-dignities in today's generations whereas there are few of us who care who want to make a difference and not see all the darkness around us come crashing down on us in many decades to come as we want you lot to know that some of us do care and will never forget what you have done for us.

[edit on 17-3-2010 by DClairvoyant]

reply to post by smashing31


This is just a copy of Milgrim's experiment.

He did this exact thing (except not on TV). He was trying to prove that German's had a flaw that caused them to be extra obedient which could explain why they followed Hitler's command without question.

He was going to run the experiment in Germany, but first decided to run it elsewhere for comparison to the German results. The first place he did it was here in America, and the results were shocking.

All in all, he concluded that most "normal" people are obedient enough to shock the man to death.

You can find videos of it on youtube and whatnot.

Originally posted by smashing31
It really makes you think about who we would be if we were devoid of outside influences. I like to think that I am true to myself, and somewhat original, but if a majority of the people can be influenced to do something so terrible, what things are we being influnced to do on a smaller scale everyday! It makes you think that maybe we really are not ourselves at all, but just a conglomeration of various influences!

Well, that is a true statement for the most part.

Without other people to watch as we grow, we would mostly not be who we are.

Without culture, we would not be influenced to be who we are.

Language, TV, parents, friends, abuse, vacations... every thing plays a part in who we are. Without these outside influences, we couldn't become what we are.

The hard part is shedding yourself of these influences when you grow up (which is basically what psychologists do for a living, to an extent).

Just thought I would add this for anyone who is interested and hasn't heard about it before:

The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University. Twenty-four undergraduates were selected out of 70 to play the roles of both guards and prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.

Stanford Prison Experiment

To me this proves that most people are born to be followers (sheep). They are easily lead and will generally go along with the crowd no matter what. Even if it means hurting or killing someone. Humans are a sad species.

What is even sadder that if this was a real TV show it wouldn't take long before it was #1 in the ratings.

Milgram did a lot of interesting experiments to discover how people are affected by other peopl. the shock one is certainly the most well known, and that made me wonder how the contestants in the french show were not aware of it, but maybe this old experiment is not covered so much in france? i think that we do tend to believe that in many situations, the people in charge know more than we do, and that they have good reason for what they say and ask us to do. i'd love to think that i would refuse to turn up that shock meter, but who knows. though it is rather a self-selected group of people willing to go on a tv game show. the original milgram experiment was done in a much more private setting so possibly a better cross section of ordinary people.

it's possible this game show is not bound by the rules regarding psychological experiments on humans because it was not officially an experiment. the participants were probably chosen more for personality and looks than to get a good statistical cross section. do we even know if the contestants were "real" or if this was like one of our own reality shows where real is not entirely real, if i understand it correctly.

the milgram shock experiment led to long term psychological problems for participants. years of therapy, and milgram was required to pay for that. surely the producers of this show were aware of that. did they buy special insurance? it would be interesting to know if they did.

there is another thing. the debriefing studies show that even when you are told something wasn't real, the belief in the original feeling lingers. those who are told they did better on a task, even though they didn't, do better than those who are not told this. unless these contestants knew ahead of time that it was fake, i bet there will be lingering guilt. but maybe that is the hope for the show: that these guilty people can participate in a followup reality show to see how they deal with their guilt.

things are getting pretty strange.

Another link:
www.digitalspy.co.uk...

Titled How Far Will Television Go?, the France 2 film replicates some of the characteristics of US psychologist Stanley Milgram's controversial 1961 experiments on obedience to authority figures, Reuters reports.
It is claimed that 81% of the 69 contestants in the fake Zone Xtreme were persuaded to give 'victims' - actually actors - increasing electric shocks. Only 19% of participants stopped the game before applying the maximum 420 volt "charge".
Show producer Christophe Nick said: "There's the fact that in a game, the boundaries between reality and fiction are blurred, so that even if your partner screams and begs you to stop, you still think you're in a game. "In Milgram's case, 62% of participants obeyed abject orders; with television it's 81%. Therefore you have to ask yourself a question which is more than about submission to an authority, but about the power of a system, a global system, which is television."

A strange link to the power of TV IMO...This is a sensationalist show I think,like big brother etc-How low will this kind of TV go on,on where will it lead?
Seems like TV is almost being used in the same way they would have public hangings back in the days of old.
Controversy draws crouds,
ratings superceed decency.

Ker ching!

Originally posted by Erasurehead
To me this proves that most people are born to be followers (sheep). They are easily lead and will generally go along with the crowd no matter what. Even if it means hurting or killing someone. Humans are a sad species.

What is even sadder that if this was a real TV show it wouldn't take long before it was #1 in the ratings.

Well thats a pretty bleak assessment. You realize it would likely work just as well on you? 1/1000 participants said they might go to the end, but 2/3 of them actually did(63%). like... just killing a dude.

Theres nothing sad about this, or people. It is simply human psychology to obey those in a position of authority. What other species are you comparing us to that makes us so horribly sad? perfect aliens(that obviously exist and are perfect & cool), or did you want to run this experiment on monkeys and mice(because i dont think they have the cognitive capacity or complexity)?

this isnt set in stone. people, given opportunities to effectively disobey , did so. This is not a study in evil (or being a sheep), but a study in the power of the situation.

reply to post by SPACEYstranger



I would like to think that it would not work on me. I would hope that my conscience would not allow me to go ahead and shock someone to death just because an authority figure told me to. I guess I wouldn't really know until I was put in that situation. The fact that so many people did tells me that we are doomed to repeat history, in the future another Hitler type will rise up and people will follow orders without question.