Leave it to reality television to resurrect the Stanley Milgram experiments in front of a live studio audience.
The game involved contestants posing questions to another “player”, who was actually an actor, and punishing him with 460 volts of electricity when he answered incorrectly.
Eventually the man’s cries of “Let me go” fell silent, and he appeared to have died.
Not knowing that their screaming victim was an actor, the apparently reluctant contestants followed the orders of the presenter, as well as chants of “Punishment” from a studio audience who also believed the game was real.
The programme’s producer and a team of psychologists recruited 80 volunteers, telling them they were taking part in a pilot for a new television show.
Well, I think that speaks for itself.