The Game of Death

Reality TV has taken dark turns but none more sobering than the Game of Death. Documentary film makers in France tricked 80 people into believing they were contestants on a game show in which they administered electric shocks to contestants. Echoing the famed experiments of psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, were told to "electrocute" a fellow contestant - actually an actor - if he got answers wrong while the audience chanted “punishment.” All but 16 of the volunteers punished the contestant until he appeared to die.

Is this a demonstration of the power of television? An indication that most people will submit to the commands of an authority figure no matter how evil (as with the Nazi death camps) in a fit of blind obedience? Or an example that contestants on what appears to be a reality TV show are savvy enough to assume the producers won’t really let someone die. So, they “play along” in a make-believe world of performance for the camera?

Here's a video about the experiment.