how far can people go?

i watched a disturbing programme on the TV last night. it was a documentary about how far people went if there was a person of authority telling them what to do. they transposed Milgram's experiment where a guy sent electric shocks to another guy if he answered a set of questions wrong. the more answers he got wrong, the stronger the shock. this documentary basically did the same, but with a reality TV show context.

they chose 80 people to act as questioners, while an actor was the candidate. the candidate was 'locked' in a box so the questioners couldn't see him, and every time he made a mistake, he was 'punished'. the people in charge of the study wanted to know where people would stop and how many would go all the way (380 volt shocks). apparently, in Milgram's experiment, 'only' about 60% went all the way. in this one, 80% did! if i remember correctly, only 9 questioners refused to go on at around question 10 (there were 27 in total), and another 7 stopped later on, when the 'candidate' screamed that he wanted out. everyone else, while unhappy about it, meekly followed the show host's encouragement to go on.

as i said, it was pretty scary - the thought that all those people, despite their best intentions, couldn't stop obeying the orders. the show hopefully made everyone wonder how far they would have gone, although the opening and the title were more about how far TV would go. at the beginning of the show, there were quite horrifying examples of what happens on some TV shows (the Japanese ones being the worst examples, although that guy in the UK who said he could survive a live Russian roulette thing was pretty disturbing too...) it makes me think that that politician in Switzerland who's opened a debate saying shouldn't be any TV between midnight and 6am might not be so far off the mark after all...

if you read/understand French, here's the link to the programme.