Complaint against TV show: Milgram experiment restaged
The obudsman of TSR television in western Switzerland has received a complaint criticizing the broadcast of the show "Jeu de la mort". The TV reality show simulated a game in which one candidate administered supposedly lethal electric shocks to another - and thus resembles the well-known Milgram experiment from the 1960s.
The man "tortured" by electric shocks was an actor, but the participants did not know that. "For ethical reasons", therefore, Markus Waldvogel, a philosophy teacher from Biel, filed a complaint. The dignity of the perpetrators had been violated, he also argued in his letter to the ombudsman. The news agency SDA has a copy of the letter. In all textbooks it is pointed out that in psychological experiments all participants must be protected, even if they take the role of the tormentors, Waldvogel said.
He also criticized the fact that the participants had not been masked. "They were recognizable to all." The philosopher also criticized the fact that the candidates had not been informed that it was an experiment. He therefore demands that TSR publicly apologize or broadcast a correction. Ombudsman Emanuel Schmutz confirmed to SDA on Tuesday that he had received the complaint. He now has 40 days to deal with the issue.
He also criticized the fact that the participants had not been masked. "They were recognizable to all." The philosopher also criticized the fact that the candidates had not been informed that it was an experiment. He therefore demands that TSR publicly apologize or broadcast a correction. Ombudsman Emanuel Schmutz confirmed to SDA on Tuesday that he had received the complaint. He now has 40 days to deal with the issue.
Experiment from the 60s
The TV show "Jeu de la mort" ("Game of Death") takes up the idea of the famous Milgram experiment from the 1960s, in which psychologist Stanley Milgram ordered his test subjects to administer electric shocks to a man. In reality, the supposed victim was an actor. Milgram wanted to test the willingness of people to follow authoritarian instructions, even if they were in direct contradiction to their conscience. In the TV version, the presenter gave the corresponding instructions with the frightening result: 80 percent of the TV candidates were willing to administer lethal electric shocks to the "victim".
