Experiment turns contestants to torturers in French TV show

Christophe Nick, the maker of the documentary for the state-owned France 2 channel, and a team of psychologists recruited 80 volunteers, telling them they were taking part in a pilot for a new television quiz show "The Game of Death".

During the show, contestants posed questions to another "player" and punished him with up to 460 volts of electricity when he got them wrong -- even until his cries of "Let me go!" fall silent and he appears to have died, AFP reported.

The contestants were not aware they were participating in an experiment.

Nick said 80 percent of the contestants went all the way, zapping the victim with the maximum 460 volts until he appeared to die. Out of 80 players, just 16 walked out.

A contestant interviewed afterwards said she had allowed the other player to be tortured despite knowing her own Jewish grandparents had been persecuted by Nazis.

"Since I was a little girl, I have always asked myself why they (the Nazis) did it. How could they obey such orders? And there I was, obeying them myself," said the woman, quoted in a book by the film makers.

"I was worried about the contestant," said another contestant. "At the same time, I was afraid to spoil the programme."



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