�PRIMETIME: BASIC INSTINCTS� LOOKS AT WHETHER PEOPLE SURVIVE AND THRIVE ON THEIR INSTINCTS ALONE

�Primetime� Returns with New Five-Part Series to Air Wednesdays, Beginning December 6 at 10:00 p.m., ET on ABC

�Trust your instinct� is a common piece of advice, but is it good advice? �Primetime: Basic Instincts� brings some of most well-known intellectual theories and psychological experiments to life for the first time to test people�s innate decision-making process. The limited series looks at everyday problems from weight loss to examining how small the world is, how closely connected we all are, what people are willing to do simply because someone in authority tells them to. The five-part series will feature reports from John Qui�ones, Jay Schadler and Chris Cuomo, and finds that what people say they would do in a given situation is quite different than what they actually do. �Primetime: Basic Instincts� will premiere WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6 and will continue to air Wednesdays through JANUARY 3, 2007 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET each night) on the ABC Television Network.

The first installment of �Primetime: Basic Instincts� begins with a hidden-camera series, �What Would You Do?,� that captures people�s reactions when confronted with dilemmas compelling them to either act or mind their own business, intervene or walk on by. Using hidden cameras, �Primetime� sets up five scenarios where there may be no clear right or wrong answer, but which demand a decision nonetheless. John Qui�ones reports on people�s split-second � and often surprising � decision-making process.

? What will diners do when their meal is ruined by kids running wild, out of control, while an oblivious parent ignores the chaos? �Primetime� reports on the fine line between stepping in or opting not to interfere with a parent�s business in how they manage their children. And when the 'mother' is substituted for the �father,� viewers will see how gender just might affect people�s standards for when to speak up or not.

? What will bystanders do when an elderly person is being abused -- verbally and even physically -- by a caregiver? Elder abuse affects more than a half-million Americans every year, and experts say only 1 in 14 cases of abuse is reported. But when this chilling scene comes to life will witnesses intervene or just walk on by?

? How will passengers react when a taxi driver uses hateful anti-gay slurs.... Will they tell him to stop, keep quiet, or maybe even join in? Recent attention to some celebrities� hate-filled tirades has been a hot topic, but what these passengers openly say about gays in America may be even more shocking, including a man who suggests that gays should be �put down.� Yet three female friends are so outraged by the driver's hateful tirade that they pretend to be gay to put him in his place.

? Almost everyone has experienced it: The obnoxious person in a restaurant talking so loudly on his cell phone that there is no escape -- everyone must hear every word. This program shows how diners get so frustrated, it seems as if a fight may break out. But when an attractive woman plays the part, the outcome is remarkably different.

? Will people protest when they see a couple get overly affectionate in a restaurant? A public display of affection among an attractive couple causes some surprising reactions. One couple decides to try to upstage our actors. �People don�t just like to watch,� observes Colgate Psychology Professor Carrie Keating. �They love to watch.� But not everyone is enthusiastic.

Throughout the limited series there will be an interactive component, where viewers will get a chance to go live to ABCNEWS.com and make their own predictions on what people�s basic instincts will be.

David Sloan is the executive producer of �Primetime: Basic Instincts.�