French TV turns Milgram experiment in TV show

[Meneldil]

Asch experiment not Milgram's

Nop, while both Asch and Milgram experiments reach the same conclusion (most human beings submit to authority even when the authority ask them to do "bad" or "wrong" things), the TV show was clearly based on the principles of the Milgram experiment.
ie. A figure of authority (the anchor, supported by the spectators) asked a person to deal a painful electrical shock to a third person, even though it becomes apparent at some point that the third person's life is in danger.

What I don’t understand with this kind of “experiment” is what new it is supposed to show.
Fact is thousands of French normal law abiding citizens were obeying orders and didn’t rebel in Algeria when witnessing torture.
Fact is thousands (if not million) were/are watching news and bombing of cities without too much reaction…

Well, the Milgram experiment was trying to explain how so many people became killers and torturers, without ever questioning what they were doing, in nazi Germany. The TV show was only trying to explain it to the public, and to prove that the authority of TV is even harder to confront than the authority of a scientist.
Mind you, as I said, it really didn't bring anything new to the table, but for people who've never heard of Milgram experiment, that might have been interesting.

I wonder what the psychological effects on the people who went through this were? Are they now facing some sort of crisis at realising what they are capable of or are they entirely comfortable with it? But yes, thanks for clearing that up Meneldil, I was outraged at first but calmed down a bit after reading your posts.

Well, a few people were quite disturbed: as stated earlier, a girl stopped playing, then bursted into tears and cried for quite some time, even though she had been explained it was only a sociological experiment.
Most people seemed sad about what they've just done. They said they knew it was wrong, but just obeyed stupidly.
Then, some people refused to admit it, and claimed they knew it was fake from the beginning. Whether they were making this up to lessen their guilt, or they knew of the experiment beforehand, I don't know.

[Fragony]

Nop, while both Asch and Milgram experiments reach the same conclusion (most human beings submit to authority even when the authority ask them to do "bad" or "wrong" things), the TV show was clearly based on the principles of the Milgram experiment.
ie. A figure of authority (the anchor, supported by the spectators) asked a person to deal a painful electrical shock to a third person, even though it becomes apparent at some point that the third person's life is in danger.

oh noes