Dr. Christine Whelan at Busted Halo’s® Virtue/Vice Blog suggest quite far:
A French documentary, which aired this spring, argues that we’d do anything to win a reality television show — even kill another human being.
The film, called “The Game of Death,” features players in a fake television game shocking fellow contestants if they answer a question incorrectly. The directors of the film found some 80 contestants and auditioned them to take part in a game-show called “Zone Xtreme,” where other “contestants” (actually actors) were asked questions while strapped to an electrified chair. If the actor gave an incorrect answer, the contestant was encouraged to administer an electric shock as punishment, while the crowd roared approval.
Sound familiar? It should. The idea for this show comes from the 1960s and the Milgram experiments. The experiment was similar in that people were asked to hit a button and they would hear bloodcurdling screams and told to continue despite it. Simply because someone in a position of authority asked, people did what they were told.
Amazingly, it seems people will do this for even more superfluous reasons today.
How far would you go for something you really wanted?
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