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>> everybody is torn. nobody thought that this was a lot of fun or something they enjoy doing. but they could not find a way to stop themselves from going along with it. >> the blind obedience in this case is being compared to the behavior of german soldiers ordered to commit atrocities insisted nazi concentration camps. in fact the show's whole premise is based on an experiment from yale back from the 1960s, which used a similar method. in the yale experiment, the people inflicting the painful shocks thought the electricity was real, too. that didn't stop two-thirds of them from giving the ma...

Well, they say the power of television made them do it. the whole thing was part of an experiment shown in a french documentary called "the game of death." where contestants believed they were giving dangerous electric shocks to other players. actually, those victims were actors. but the disturbing results were all too real. randi kaye has more. >> reporter: it's called "the game of death" and it's torture to play. on this french game show, contestants pose a question, but here's the catch, if their fellow player gets the answer wrong, he's zapped with increasing amounts of electricity, as muc...

In the yale experiment, the people inflicting the painful shocks thought the electricity was real, too. that didn't stop two-thirds of them from giving the maximum shock available, 400 volts. >> most people will in fact act in this horrendous way and press the shock levers that they think is delivering very dangerous, if not, lethal electric shocks to another person. the moral there is not that people are horrible or that we're brutal or sadistic individuals, the lesson is, really that in certain circumstances in the right situation, the average, typical, well-adjusted person will act in these...

Question, but here's the catch, if their fellow player gets the answer wrong, he's zapped with increasing amounts of electricity, as much as 460 volts. the more wrong answers, the more voltage, the more pain. the audience shouts for more punishment. some contestants are reluctant, but are swayed by the audience, demanding higher voltage. but here's what the audience and contestants don't know there is no electricity, no pain inflicted. the players tortured for their wrong answers are really actors hired to play the part. their screams of agony, fake. in fact, this really wasn't a game show at ...

Wrong answers are really actors hired to play the part. their screams of agony, fake. in fact, this really wasn't a game show at all. but in an experiment about how far some people are willing to go to inflict pain on a complete stranger. >> amazingly, only 16 out of 80 refused to inflict pain on the others. >> they're in a situation where they have to act quickly. they can't stop and think about what is the right thing do. they have to act right now. all of those things lead people to respond to the situational queues. >> reporter: the show is part a documentary airing on french tv, which exa...