The Blue-Eyed, Brown-Eyed Exercise by CommonLit Staff 2014 7th Grade Lexile: 1190 Font Size After the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a third-grade teacher named Jane Elliott led a social experiment to help her students understand the unfair treatment of African Americans. She said she hoped that the gut-wrenching experiment would stay with the children for the rest of their lives. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr.s assassination in 1968, Jane Elliott, a schoolteacher in rural Iowa, introduced to her all-white third-grade class a shocking experiment to demonstrate the scorching impact of racism. Describe how researchers study genetic influences on personality. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? That was part of convincing the students that the experiment was real. Brown eyes + blue eyes = 50% chance of blue eyes, but only if the brown-eyed parent carries a blue-eyed gene. Soon, multitudes of teachers around the world, looking for a magic bullet to erase racism, adopted the experiment and imported it into their own classrooms. Fifty years after she first tried the experiment, many former students and workshop participants still carry scars of the experience. | Theme by ThemeinProgress They also harassed them constantly. Things even got violent at recess. This experiment has taken place in a classroom- field experiment -as well as in the school playground, very realistic places for an experiment to have great external validity because it applies to every life. One student said it was the equivalent of black people being called derogatory names. Why are case studies used in qualitative research? We may edit your letter for length and clarity and publish it on our site. Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. The teacher, Jane Elliot, inflated the "superior" students' grades as part of her experiment. Unethical Experiments: Jane Elliott'sBlue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment-Adelle Dolik Summary of Experiment: After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Elliott, a third-grade teacher in Iowa in 1968, decided to teach her students about society'sracial prejudice. The Blue-Eyed, Brown-Eyed exercise was an experiment within Jane Elliott's third grade class to show what segregation would be like. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. The roots of racism and why it continues unabated in America and other nations are complicated and gnarled. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. b. By the mid-1980s, Elliott had retooled herself as a New Age visionary. Imagine that scientists were able to identify specific genes linked to serious criminal behavior and it was possible to remove or redesign these genes. Subsequent research designed to gauge the efficacy of Elliotts attempt at reducing prejudice showed that many participants were shocked by the experiment, but it did nothing to address or explain the root causes of racism. Certainly, the experiment demonstrated how hungry Americans are for a silver bullet to cure racism. What is the difference between blue eyed and brown eyed students? If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. As Elliott recalls, she engineered the "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise" in 1968 after watching the late-night news cycle announce the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Rather than be deterred by possible The day after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Jane Elliott, a schoolteacher in rural Iowa, introduced to her all-white third-grade class a shocking . In trying to teach the insidious impact of racism, did the experiment itself damage students? Without telling the children the experiments purpose, Elliott demonstrated how easy it was to create abhorrent racist behavior based on students eye color, not skin color. 1901), Lexpertise universitaire, lexigence journalistique. In the dim glow of cold blue lights overhead, the trophies of the Titan Tower's evidence room reflected off a pair of googly white eyes. She instructed the brown-eyed children to heckle and berate the blue-eyed students, even to start fights with them. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. Do you think there is a lot of cultural bias in intelligence testing? She selectively interprets behavior to confirm the stereotypes she had assigned by asking questions. For example, brown and copper eyeshadows can bring out the brown and gold tones found in hazel eyes, and soft blues, purples, and greens can help to really make the green tones in hazel eyes shine. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. Do blue eyes and brown eyes see differently? Our experts can answer your tough homework and study questions. Barbie had to have a Ken, so Elliott picked from the audience a tall, handsome man and accused him of doing the same things with his female subordinates, Pasicznyk said. She gave privileges to blue eyed people one day and made the brown eyed people wear collars to distance themselves . It was obscene.. In fact, Elliott encouraged them, based on the childrens newly granted superiority or inferiority. As for Elliott, the experiment that she popularized on unwitting students began to raise more and more questions as it was unveiled by more educators and trainers in more places. Blue-eyed genes are generally recessive. Professor Stephen G. Bloom is a member of the faculty at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, Elliott had a talk with her students about diversity and racism. Elliott, who is white, separated the students into two groupsthose with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. God's Crooked Lines: Paranoia or Reality? Explain briefly. Very famous studies have used unethical methods to allow the experiment to run smoothly, as for example the Stanford Prison Study. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. No ads. To emphasise the effects of discrimination and group bias on personal attribute and self-esteem. The experiment also had an academic effect. You have the right color eyes!. Explain your reasoning. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Race and Brutality 2022-11-06. How does color play into the placebo effect? When you study Jane Elliotts famous lesson on discrimination What is one conclusion you are most likely to make? Many still see the students and the town itself as victims of a human experiment to which they had not consented. Iowa City, IA 52242-1409 The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with their eye colors. In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. over thirty years ago, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. Looking back, the experiment may have demonstrated to participants what bias felt like, but it failed to include any demonstration of how kindness, compassion, or empathy might play roles in reducing prejudice. Ethical Research: Ethical research safeguards the person's best interest and well-being. One of the most famous experiments in education Jane Elliott's "blue eyes, brown eyes" separation of her third grade students to teach them about prejudice was very different from what the public was told, as revealed in this excerpt from the in-depth story about what really happened in that classroom. She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. 1968 The blue-eyes group was discriminated against while the people with brown eyes were treated with respect. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott decided to divide her classroom into students with blue eyes and students with brown eyes. In the process, she turned herself into Americas mother of diversity training. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. Was the Stanford Prison Experiment ethical? Do similar matrices have same singular values? How can we teach kids to be more like him? What are some of the ethical issues of DNA analysis? In 1971, when Elliott was pitting blue-eyed students against their brown-eyed counterparts, Zimbardo was conducting his own contentious research, known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, to show how easy it was to make thugs out of college students once they were given an overdose of power. But when she discovered that I was asking pointed questions of scores of her former students, as well as others subjected to the experiment, she made an about-face and said she no longer would cooperate with me. Mrs. Jane Elliots has made an observational study in 1971 called Brown eyes and Blue eyes in which she observed how children would act upon each other when theyre divided into a low class group and a high class group. The blue-eyed students, when told they were superior and offered privileges such as extra recess time, changed their behavior dramatically and their attitudes toward the children with brown eyes. How do the results of the experiment contribute to Jane Elliotts lesson to her students? In this they saw how colors and discrimination . Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . In Psychology and Life, a one-and-a-half-inch-thick standard textbook that hundreds of thousands of undergraduates still tote to classes, the eye experiment would be praised as one of the most effective demonstrations of how easily prejudiced attitudes may be formed, and how arbitrary and illogical they can be., One of the textbooks authors, Stanford professor Philip G. Zimbardo, described Elliotts classroom activity as a remarkable experiment, more compelling than many done by professional psychologists.. Participants described her hurling insults at them, particularly those who were white and had blue eyes. The website cannot function properly without these cookies. The second most common eye color is blue, with an estimated 17 percent of the world's population having blue eyes. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. She says that its shocking how children whore normally kind, cooperative, and friendly with each other suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory, and hostile when they belong to a superior group. Racism is not genetical. Why is sample size important in psychological research? This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. While Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism, few I interviewed agreed with her. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. His current work focuses on long-form nonfiction, oral history, and online narrative journalism. Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. Why might a charismatic leader exhibit unethical behaviors? In your view, does studying ethics lead to a better society? The children said yes, and the exercise began. Gwen Sharp, PhD on February 1, 2009. Why is it important to evaluate the reliability and validity of a psychological test? Many of them noted that when they hear prejudice and discrimination from others, they wish they could whip out those collars and give them the experience they had as third graders. 240 Schaeffer Hall It was an unbelievable breach of trust. Elliots discrimination create no-win situations for those placed in the inferior group because everyone were placed in that position giving no one to feel as if they were picked on. Indeed, one of the best-known classroom experiments to combat racism remains a divisive subject more than a half-century after it was tried out in a rural Iowa elementary school. She tried it on adults, not just in the United States and Canada, but in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. She used ethnography by according students to the high or low class pending their eye color, either blue or brown. Pasicznyk joined 75 other telecommunication employees for a training session that lasted three days in a Denver suburb during the mid-1980s. Initial Reaction to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Exercise. Why is it difficult to distinguish genetic from experiential influences? How do the results of the experiment contribute to Jane Elliotts lesson to her students? During the 1970s and 1980s in the United States workshops such as Elliotts gained popularity in and out of the corporate world. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. What ethical standards did the Monster Study violate? A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. Psychological Realism. B) What precautions can be taken to ensure that the experimenter does this? Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. For two parents with brown eyes to have a blue-eyed child, both parents must genetically be Bb. I felt like quitting school. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. Copyright Steadyprintshop.com 2023 There were more brown-eyed students in the room. It is an unflinching assessment of the incendiary experiment forever associated with Elliott, even though she was not the first to try it out. On an otherwise deserted and isolated island, 200 perfect logicians . The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. In the brown eyed/blue eyed experiment Jane Elliot told her third graders with blue eyes that they were better than the brown-eyed children. Traditionally, society has always treated leadership as a male issue. Give a hypothesis as to why people see/hear such drastically different colors/words when exposed to the same sensory stimuli. Courtesy of AP Photo, by STEPHEN G. 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