For the last week of December, we’re re-posting some of our favorite posts from 2011.
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In Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, Ori and Rom Brafman discuss a contestant on Qui Veut Gagner des Millions?, the French version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, who asks the audience for help with the question, “Which of these revolves around the Earth?” His options are the sun, the moon, Venus, and Mars. While it might be surprising that he doesn’t know, more shocking is the result of the audience poll — 56% say the sun:
How can we explain this? The easiest answer, and the video’s title, is that French people appear to be stupid, or were never informed about the Copernican Revolution. But the Brafmans have an explanation based on different cultural attitudes toward reality shows and, ultimately, ideas about fairness.
The general outlines of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? are the same regardless of country. But distinct cultural patterns have emerged in how audiences act when asked for help. In the U.S., contestants can count on the audience’s goodwill; regardless of the question asked, audiences appear to do their best to help contestants out and the Brafmans report that data shows the audience is right over 90% of the time. I must admit it had never occurred to me that audiences would do anything other than try to be helpful. Though I don’t watch game shows now, as a kid I regularly watched The Price Is Right, among others, with my family, and we always inherently rooted for the contestant, cringing if they seemed to make a bad choice and rejoicing if they won big. We truly wanted these complete strangers to win.
But not all national audiences are so cooperative. When the show was introduced in Russia, contestants quickly learned to be wary of asking the audience for help because Russian audiences frequently mislead them, intentionally giving the wrong answer. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the players or the questions they ask for help on.
In France, audiences seem to fall in the middle. They don’t regularly attempt to trick players, as Russian (and according to my googling, Ukrainian) audiences do. But unlike U.S. audiences, they don’t seem willing to help under any circumstances, either. They appear to intentionally give the wrong answer if the contestant asks for help on a question the audience perceives as too easy. If they think the player ought to know the answer they give the wrong response, apparently thinking the contestant deserves to lose if they’re so stupid. In the video you can hear audience laughter when Henri decides to go with the results of the audience poll.
Ori and Rom Brafman suggest this relates to notions of fairness, which have been shown to vary widely by culture. They say that in the U.S., we think it’s fair for people to win large sums of money even if they seem dumb, while in France, there is more concern about whether the individual deserves to win. They consulted historians of Russian society who suggest audience behavior there results from a general mistrust of those who gain sudden wealth. However, they provide no data to directly connect the audience members’ intentional wrong answers to cultural perceptions of fairness more broadly, so I’m somewhat hesitant about this theoretical leap. If you’re an enterprising grad student looking for a dissertation topic, perhaps you can take this project on and get back to me with your results.
But I think this topic is also interesting for the way it highlights the intersection of globalization and local cultures. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, like other reality shows such as the various varieties of Idol, are international franchises (Millionaire is owned by Sony), designed to be easily transferable to and implemented in many countries with the same basic blueprint — simply add local talent and you’ve got a successful TV show. But as the variation in Millionaire shows, differences inevitably creep in as a global product or process is used or interpreted on the local level, sometimes in superficial ways but other times to a degree that significantly alters the original product.
Thanks to Kelly V. for the tip about the book!
Comments 72
Grizzly — February 3, 2011
This post reminds me of an early episode of American Idol, where a contestant whom they thought would fail actually performed well. Randy and Paula were excited, and Simon turned to them and something along the lines of, "I notice in this country that you tend to get excited when someone else succeeds." A friend of mine from England pointed out the comment to me the next day, and said she had the same thought as Simon.
Greg — February 3, 2011
It is potentially very interesting when considered along with the recent post (http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/31/exceptional-american-beliefs-about-mobility-and-inequality/) that had everyone discussing meritocracy and the American dream.
If any grad student does approach the topic, I'd also be interested to hear whether it is a cultural view of Americans (French, etc.) in general, or just the Americans (French, etc.) who tend to watch game shows.
Ranah — February 3, 2011
American Idol in Bulgaria turned into a freak show - the organizers were happy to see people who're obviously mentally ill, or have other qualities (or lack of qualities) that can be mocked and ridiculed. The show was going intentionally in a humiliating direction and no real search for talent.
Jirka — February 3, 2011
It's funny, because the Sun actually DOES revolve around the Earth (if the Earth is your frame of reference, which is always placed arbitrarily) - so the audience's answer is not wrong.
Leia — February 3, 2011
I'm French, and I can tell most people in France find the questions of "Qui Veut Gagner des Millions" way too easy. On the contrary, the questions of "Questions Pour Un Champion" (Going For Gold) are more difficult and you will earn more books than money at this game. It is thus considered as a game for highbrows.
And, indeed, people don't like ones who get a large amount of money without effort or too easily (check out our president :D), so I'm not surprised by this attempt of sabotage. Honestly, I'm so ashamed to see an old guy like him who doesn't event know the most elementary astronomy. I know this vid because many people make fun of him now. What a douche !
MR.B — February 3, 2011
I find this fascinating because France tends to be more in favor of socialism and more critical of capitalism, the U.S. being vise versa. Given that, you would expect U.S. and French audiences to have opposite reactions. The "good little capitalists in the U.S." should not want someone to get the right answer if they haven't earned it, while the "good little socialists" should want to lend a helping hand to someone less fortunate. I know this is a oversimplification of the two views, but its a surprising and interesting result.
bidoof — February 3, 2011
You can sort of see a difference on American and British comedy shows too. "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" will have a bad pun and the audience will giggle along, but a similar British show called "The Now Show" will have the audience booing at the pun.
Jeremy — February 3, 2011
In the General Social Survey, around 20 people either answer don't know or miss the question about whether the earth revolves around the sun or the sun revolves around the earth.
Eve — February 4, 2011
This reminds me of what happened with the Worst Driver series. Apparently, Canada's Worst Driver (the one I watched first, due to my being Canadian) is the only one that sees it as an educational exercise instead of a reality show with winners and losers. I love watching it both because it is hilarious to see people vomit at the sight of a rear-view mirror, and because I learn things about driving. I was incensed to find out that the American version was a show with ridiculous people either winning money or getting their cars blown up (my typical Canadian response was of course, "darn Americans won't watch a show without boobs and explosions"), until I found out that that was actually the original premise of the show.
A. Helin — February 4, 2011
This is utterly fascinating. It hadn't ever even occurred to me that audiences would answer the question wrong on purpose, but when it was framed in the context of answering wrong on an obvious question to mock the contestant, it suddenly made sense as well. My take would be that Finland is like France in the sense that audiences would strive to answer as best as they could on a tough question, but if you asked them something like in the French example above, many would be tempted to give a purposefully wrong answer to mock the contestant and because they'd perceive them as unworthy of the prize. I agree with the reasoning in one of the comments above, that it's basically the principle of "everyone gets a chance, but there's no free lunch for idiots." In countries with high social mobility, it makes sense.
Anders — February 4, 2011
In Norway, a country that's way more socialistic than France, it's genreally unheard of to willfully mislead the contestant in Who wants to be a Milionaire. I think it's because the host says tells the audience to press the right answer, not what answer they want to give the contestant, and it's more natural for us to follow the rules to its letter than I can imagine it to be for the french and russians
Marina — February 4, 2011
Who Wants to be a Millionaire is indeed a fascinating subject for research - as are these kinds of franchise gameshows in general - but I find the assertion that the differences with the French and Russian audiences "may" stem from people simply wanting others to fail (and not from, say, different perceptions of education and knowledge that come from generations of socio-political conditions that are perhaps different to the ones found in the US/UK) problematic. Notions of fairness, imo, are far less relevant here than issues of who can and should and is responsible for procuring education and what it means when one has failed to do so.
fivi — February 6, 2011
If you really need the answer to something, sometimes the best place to ask and get a bunch of people to respond, like to a survey, is Fireviews.
Julie — February 11, 2011
Things never to do in France, ever. Ask a stupid question.
Just. Don't. Do. It.
Avoiding appearing stupid or foolish, loosing face, embarrassing oneself these are very important factors here in France. Making any kind of mistake can be the absolute end of the world, well, other people making a mistake, they themselves of course never do, only others. I think it's fair to say that there's a very harsh attitude towards people who aren't as smart as they 'should' be.
It's very hard on their own mental health (eventually it dawns they they too are 'the other' at times) and can get dreary for those of us who have to live here. I have yet to meet a Parisian man yet who was not at least a genius in his own mind and surrounded by fools. Sigh.
Trusted Advisor » The March Trust Matters Review » Trusted Advisor — March 15, 2011
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Elli — December 27, 2011
First of all, It’s a very interesting post, thanks for reposting it .
Russian here. I must admit I don't watch game shows much, but I am yet to see people giving intentionally wrong answer. Is it a new development?
Questions are pretty silly and I suspect people might be annoyed by people who didn’t get their free University education, but I have never seen it actually happen. It would be great to see the statistics….
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London Classifieds Penplease — June 4, 2016
Don't say that french are stupid ), "qui veut gagner des millions" is a stupid tv game i watch it sometimes. But don't forget that some american don't know where Europe is on a map )))
TheMan — June 4, 2016
The earth is flat! So yes the sun revolves around the earth. ;p
Corporate Serf — June 4, 2016
I think it comes down to the value each country places on education. Being uneducated in America carries much less of a social sigma than in Europe.
SortingHat — July 23, 2016
That's called *socialism* which is only one step from total communism where the state runs the show and then you have globalism on steroids in that situation with no incentive for change or growth.
Don't like the product? TOO F-KING BAD! The government will just pour millions of your dollars into making a newer just as crappy version of the same product with a few minor differences.
Both situations *communism and globalism* are not ideal and are NOT a free market where people have choices which is why the audience is more helpful in the USA version.
Not only that but I'm willing to bet a lot of the audience is in the *older* range who grew up in the generations that had nicer people who were not so *reserved* when talking to strangers in short conversations.
SortingHat — July 23, 2016
If WWTBM is ran by the government in communism it will be what I said where they won't change and like Google there would be *no customer feedback* which is one of the most important things if you want your business to grow.
Seeking the wisdom of the crowd isn’t always a wise idea. – Mitch Wallace — July 17, 2017
[…] Sometimes a situation predates your experience and you are at a loss for direction. Where do you start? How do you begin? You know you need insight and you might need guidance. You also know you need results and answers. You might even have budget or time restrictions. But starting your project by asking for the answers first is like looking at someone’s exam during a test during school. It is an answer. It is also their answer. And like an exam, the time to learn the answer is before the exam. Unless you are on a gameshow, polling the audience can be dangerous, and even then it is not foolproof. […]
Kathy Bramley — October 18, 2017
American and British society doesn't seem free from ableist or eugenics tinged sentiment. Nor above mockingly inducing a pratfall. As someone who was bullied this way at school myself.
Is there something about "socialist" revolution? And the political, civil rights and humanitarian situations and suspicious atmosphere or possibilities for stories of personal emancipation that followed? It's context specific perhaps. And reminds me of Animal Farm - the pretentious, grandiloquent faux-intellectual rhetoric that the pigs used. That still belies the inherent and latent value of the diversity of the farm.
In the UK or US you'd be glad if someone, even an "idiot" escaped the mines, workhouses or factories as it seemed inspirational, gave hope, one in the eye to the elites, and christian, whilst on the other hand it might also overall seem better for someone to find a niche elsewhere: safety, behaviour, quick-witted flexibility, the ability to lie, and knowing how and when to toe the line - not neurodiverse behaviour - go together in an ideologically controlled/dangerous industrial situation. Or has done in the past.
Being a good audience is an arts-based value; and the majority of the country find it easier to go with the flow of social expectations and formal formats than I do. You also prevent yourself cutting off your nose to spite your face, avoiding fouling the space of opportunity you perhaps hope and aspire to enter one day. No point blocking or complicating an escape route. That
What would a South Korean audience do? Have Russian audiences been hardened to do the opposite of 'obey to the point of fatalities' (as per Milgram experiments) - by the authoritarian police state atmosphere? Sadly, almost amounts to something similar, except that it doesn't?
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Heywood Jblowmie — March 17, 2019
The french are hated by the world for a reason.
John Smith — August 27, 2021
I really like to watch various game shows
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