Saturday, March 20, 2010

Contestants Electrocute Each Other On Game Of Death TV Show

Watch a clip from a controversial 'gameshow' in which participants are asked to administer what they believe to be near-lethal electric shocks to rival contestants.

The aim of the experiment is to show how the manipulative power of television can push people to ever more outrageous limits.

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

They were instructed to pose questions to another "player", and punish him with up to 460 volts of electricity when he got answers wrong.

Not knowing that the screaming victim was really an actor, the apparently reluctant contestants yielded to the orders of the presenter and audience, who also believed the game was real.

The programme airs as a documentary on France 2 TV on Wednesday.