Unbelievable electric shock resistance

[Ronico]

I have been watching this danish reality show lately, and there was one thing in it, that really triggered my BS meter. I would appreciate some input from people more intelligent than me.
The program is called 'Fristet - hvor langt vil du g�' or in english: Tempted - how far do you want to go?' The contenders in this show are put in various dilemmas, where they often have to do something unethical or painful in order to get money to their team. The team with the most money in the end gets to the finale, where one of the team members will win the teams money.

One of the dilemmas was this: Each team was given an electric dog collar, that had to be worn at all times. The team members could pass it on to eachother, as often as they wanted. The host of the show had the remote control, and he would push the buttom at random intervals.
The strange thing is, that while most of the contenders would scream in pain at nearly every jolt, this 20 year old girl seemed to be almost completely unaffected by it.
http://tv3.dk/fristet/afsnit-12-smertefuld-duel?type=embed (You'll have to endure a few commercials to see it.)
At 9:00 she gets 6 jolts in a row, and she refuses to react to it. See the guy right after for comparison.
This guy said in an interview, that the girl could have the collar on for hours, while the others had to switch every half hour.

I can't help but think, that there might be trickery involved. Seeing as how some electric collars can be adjusted, the host/producers could simply turn up or down for the voltage, every time a contender passes it on to someone else. 'Why would they do that?' you might ask. Well, the show is made purely for intertainment, so the producers might have decided to do this, if they thought, that it would be more intertaining than just having everyone screaming.
Also, we are never told, how high the voltage is, so there are no way of telling, if the contenders reactions are plausible.

So here is what I would like to know:
Are some people born with this kind of resistance to electric chocks?
Can people really train themself to ignore electric shocks, that normally would have them sceaming in pain? (I doubt that is the case here though.)
And last but not least, are my suspicions about trickery unfounded?

 

[Frenger]

Hi Ronico, welcome to the forum.

This is a very strange question I must say but with a quick google search I was able to find a little bit out. I am always sceptical about blogs so I ignored those (although some claim people can withstand huge amounts of electricity but, that can hardly be verified) but I did find a site called allaboutcircuits.com. (here is the link)

Now I am not claiming this to be any kind of authority but this is a small passage that seems to fit your question.

But how much current is harmful? The answer to that question also depends on several factors. Individual body chemistry has a significant impact on how electric current affects an individual. Some people are highly sensitive to current, experiencing involuntary muscle contraction with shocks from static electricity. Others can draw large sparks from discharging static electricity and hardly feel it, much less experience a muscle spasm. Despite these differences, approximate guidelines have been developed through tests which indicate very little current being necessary to manifest harmful effects (again, see end of chapter for information on the source of this data). All current figures given in milliamps (a milliamp is equal to 1/1000 of an amp):



BODILY EFFECT DIRECT CURRENT (DC) 60 Hz AC 10 kHz AC
---------------------------------------------------------------
Slight sensation Men = 1.0 mA 0.4 mA 7 mA
felt at hand(s) Women = 0.6 mA 0.3 mA 5 mA
---------------------------------------------------------------
Threshold of Men = 5.2 mA 1.1 mA 12 mA
perception Women = 3.5 mA 0.7 mA 8 mA
---------------------------------------------------------------
Painful, but Men = 62 mA 9 mA 55 mA
voluntary muscle Women = 41 mA 6 mA 37 mA
control maintained
---------------------------------------------------------------
Painful, unable Men = 76 mA 16 mA 75 mA
to let go of wires Women = 51 mA 10.5 mA 50 mA
---------------------------------------------------------------
Severe pain, Men = 90 mA 23 mA 94 mA
difficulty Women = 60 mA 15 mA 63 mA
breathing
---------------------------------------------------------------
Possible heart Men = 500 mA 100 mA
fibrillation Women = 500 mA 100 mA
after 3 seconds
---------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, some people are slightly more perceptible to its effects than others so it is possible that the girl simply wasn't feeling it and even though it could still be a relatively low current others were feeling it quite a lot.

The other thing to say is yes, it could simply be television.

Hope this helps!

 

[Ronico]

Frenger, thanks for your reply.
Why do you think it's a strange question?

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

Though it is odd - I've encountered people with affinity for different tolerances and (I use the term loosely) "influences" for electrical currents.
For example, I had a friend in middle school that could rub his fingers together and somehow generate a relatively effective static arc from his finger to metal (you had to look closely, but it was there). He liked to fuck with people by zapping them like that - though often he did it unintentionally.
Out on base I met a Marine who could do this thing where he touched a wire to his shoulder and held a light bulb, lighting it. When other people tried it, they couldn't get passed the whole "Touching the wire" part to grab the bulb - I'm not aware of the current configuration, but it was certainly large enough to make several of them shout relatively loudly.

But, as for pain tolerance:
Pain tolerance is different for everyone, and external afflictions can be deterred by willpower. Think of it in terms of getting a shot when you were a child vs. getting a shot when you're a grown adult, or scraping your knee as a child vs. as an adult. Or (being in the military) getting the shit beat out of you metaphorically during work out vs. later workouts of equal intensity.
Pain is part of the body's way of making you aware of something seriously affecting important systems in your body - you get stabbed in the arm, shot in the leg, punched in the chest, etc. etc. etc.

However, pain can be brushed aside in favor of either mental desensitization (you no longer cry at getting stabbed in the arm because you're quite aware that the stab isn't going to kill you) or through sheer willpower over the presented option of failure otherwise (fight/flight instinct through stress reactions). Neither of these mean that one will be experiencing less of an initial reaction, but the brain is more apt to tell the body to hold it's own during these trying moments - essentially dousing the signals with pleasant chemicals in favor of preservation of the status quo.

The woman could have any number of factors for her ability to withstand shock int hat manner and hold her own.

 

[Leçi]

I am capable of touching electric fences (like to keep horses on the field) without yelling or indeed any facial response, the electricity might make my arm spasm around a bit but I can handle it pretty well. I've had times I tried to shock people by touching the electric wire first and then try to touch people, even pushing the wire down to let others pass. So yea, I know first hand some people are more resistant to it.