How far will we go to obey authority? Co-produced by Court TV and the Sundance Channel, the documentary “The Human Behavior Experiments” (9 p.m.) appears on both channels tonight.

“Experiments” looks at psychological studies conducted under laboratory conditions, as well as notorious true-life events that reveal startling evidence about how people behave in groups and how far individuals will go to obey or please an authority figure.

The first and most famous of these tests was conducted in the early 1960s, when Yale professor Stanley Milgram asked New Haven, Conn., residents to participate in a test. Participants were asked to jolt another person every time they gave an incorrect answer to a question. The current increased with each wrong answer. Although the other person was not really getting electrocuted, the New Haven participants did not know that. Even (prerecorded) howls of pain did not stop most participants from turning the juice up to 450 volts. Why? Because they were told to do so.

The strangest cases took place outside the laboratory. A prankster pretending to be a police officer called a fast-food outlet and convinced an assistant manager to strip-search and humiliate another employee. She complied, even though the authority figure was not even in the room.

“Experiments” also looks at the dangerous power of conformity and apathy, as evidenced in the tragic 1964 Kitty Genovese murder, fatal fraternity hazing incidents and the sadistic mayhem of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The vintage films and filmstrips of these experiments may remind some viewers of the films and videos discovered by characters on the series “Lost.” That’s fitting, because that mysterious drama seems to be one big mind game or experiment, where “players” observe each other without really knowing what’s going on, and where people submit to authority, like pushing the button, without question.

¢ Once the province of ESPN2 during the early-morning hours, “The 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee” (7 p.m., ABC) has hit the network big time.

Spelling bee mania has spawned an acclaimed 2002 documentary, “Spellbound,” as well as the movies “Bee Season” and “Akeelah and the Bee”; a Tony-winning Broadway musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”; and a recent book “American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds” by James Maguire (Rodale Press 2006).

Tonight’s other highlight

¢ Ricki Lake hosts “Gameshow Marathon” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ On four consecutive episodes of “The Office” (NBC), passing the time during a fire drill (7 p.m.), Michael’s screenplay revealed (7:30 p.m.), performance reviews (8 p.m.), Michael monitors e-mail (8:30 p.m.).

¢ Bad grades grate on “Everybody Hates Chris” (7 p.m., UPN).

¢ The music continues on “So You Think You Can Dance” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ A shrink vanishes from her parking garage on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).

¢ John Stamos guest stars on “ER” (9 p.m., NBC).