Elliott reminded them that the reason for the lesson was the King assassination, and she asked them to write down what they had learned. It also shows how arbitrary and subjective things can turn friends, family members, and citizens against each other. 4. Would you like to find out? The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. A Class Divided | FRONTLINE - PBS To most people, it seemed to suggest that racism could be reduced, even eliminated, by a one- or two-day exercise. Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment: Investigation. Therefore when she gave the blue eyed people more freedom than the brown eyed people, the blue eyed people started feeling like kings because they thought they were better, and were treated better. PDF TRAUMA-RELATED PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS - Boston University The results were the same. 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. You can contribute to that positive change by watching the documentary. If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the Want a quality guarantee? The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. "She was an excellent school teacher, but she has a way about her," says 90-year-old Riceville native Patricia Bodenham, who has known Elliott since Jane was a baby. Jane Elliot: Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes - UKEssays.com Then tell them that . Delivery in 6+ hours! ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. ", We backed out. Hundreds of viewers wrote letters saying Elliott's work appalled them. The blue-eyed brown-eyed experiment was conducted by Jane Elliott, a school teacher from Iowa, in which she separated blue eyed children from brown eyed children and took turns making one of the "superior" to the other. These differences lead to war and hate. Social Emotional Learning Lessons for Jane Elliott - Advancement Courses In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. What can be changed to make the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. Jane Elliot's Experiment - 879 Words | Bartleby . If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand. Jane Elliott's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? (2013). All rights reserved. I was stunned. Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. "We want to see Room No. According to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, 2010 the experiment also violates the principle of Integrity. Back when she introduced the experiment to her Iowa students more than five decades ago, at least one student had the audacity to challenge Elliotts premise, according to those who were in the classroom at the time. Even family members can turn against each other if some authority suddenly decides that those differences are a problem. At lunchtime, Elliott hurried to the teachers' lounge. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. Jane Elliott (ne Jennison; born on November 30, 1933) is an American diversity educator.As a schoolteacher, she became known for her "Blue eyes/Brown eyes" exercise, which she first conducted with her third-grade class on April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. And they are smarter than blue-eyed people." The brown-eyed children got to sit in the front of the room, to go to lunch first, and to have more time at recess. This meeting, along with other clips of the exercises impact on education, is featured in a PBS documentary called A Class Divided. When the exercise ended, some of the kids hugged, some cried. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. The roots of racism and why it continues unabated in America and other nations are complicated and gnarled. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was a seismic event, a turning point that compelled many Americans to do something and do it with urgency. 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 "Brown eyes and Blue eyes" Study | sabbaila Introduction. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". The fourth of five children, Elliott was born on her family's farm in Riceville in 1933, and was delivered by her Irish-American father himself. She would conduct the exercise for the nine more years she taught the third grade, and the next eight years she taught seventh and eighth graders before giving up teaching in Riceville, in 1985, largely to conduct the eye-color exercise for groups outside the school. This was intentional. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. Solve your problem differently! Junior high, maybe. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. Elliott continues, "Just when you think that the fertile soil can sprout no more, another season comes round, and you see another year of bountiful crops, tall and straight. American Psychological Association, 4. [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Kors writes that Elliott's exercise taught "blood-guilt and self-contempt to whites," adding that "in her view, nothing has changed in America since the collapse of Reconstruction." Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. Would you like to get this essay by email? Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. In the 60th year beyond Brown vs. Board of Education, Frontline is making available their classic 1985 documentary, " A Class Divided ," about the experiment and what happened later. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. Website. She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. The video . 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue-eyed kids to wear one. The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment. Stripping away the veneer of the experiment, what was left had nothing to do with race. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. (Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). Decent Essays. "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment. This was the smaller group. "You can see the look on their faces. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. She noticed that student relationships had changed; even if students were friendly outside of the exercise, they treated each other with arrogance or bossiness once the roles were assigned. he asked. That might have been the end of it, but a month later, Elliott says, Johnny Carson called her. 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today - Mental Floss "You better apologize to us for getting in our way because we're better than you are," one of the brownies said. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. 980 Words. ", Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise, 'I See These Conversations As Protective': Talking With Kids About Race. Jane Elliott - Wikipedia Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. The blue eyes/brown eyes experiment, which could last one to three days, was at a glance similar to other human-potential-movement workshops of the era, including Werner Erhard's est training . One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott decided to divide her classroom into students with blue eyes and students with brown eyes. Yes, that day was tough. The musical is about romance, but it integrates issues of race and discrimination (Norris, 2014), and the song is about how discrimination is taught carefully, in long term. ", Elliott replied, "Why are we so worried about the fragile egos of white children who experience a couple of hours of made-up racism one day when blacks experience real racism every day of their lives?". Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Even though the response to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise was initially negative, it made Jane Elliott a leading figure in diversity training. Looking back, I think part of the problem was that, like the residents of other small midwestern towns I've covered, many in Riceville felt that calling attention to oneself was poor manners, and that Elliott had shone a bright light not just on herself but on Riceville; people all over the United States would think Riceville was full of bigots. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. From the moment the experiment begins, Jane Elliott uses a mean tone to speak to the participants. And what she did caused an uproar. After the local newspaper published a story on Elliott and the experiment, she was flown to New York to appear on May 31, 1968, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she extolled the experiments effectiveness in cluing in her 8-year-old white students on what it was like to be Black in America. On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. On the first day, she told the children with blue eyes they were superior: smarter and more well-behaved than the children with brown eyes. It makes you proud. In doing the research for my book with scores of peoples who were participants in the experiment, I reached out to Elliott. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. Biddle, B. J. As for the criticism that the exercise encourages children to distrust authority figuresthe teacher lies, then recants the lies and maintains they were justified because of a greater goodshe says she worked hard to rebuild her students' trust. The experiment was to be a division of eye colour starting with blue eyed student having superiority and then the following day, the roles would be reversed. Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict. "Malinda? She described to her colleagues what she'd done, remarking how several of her slower kids with brown eyes had transformed themselves into confident leaders of the class. The blue eyes and brown eyes experiment According to supporters of Elliott's approach, the goal is to reach people's sense of empathy and morality. When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. The tallest structure in Riceville is the water tower. All 28 children found their desks, and Elliott said she had something special for them to do, to begin to understand the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. the day before. Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist at George WashingtonUniversity, says the exercise helps develop character and empathy. "Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown-eyed people are better than those with blue eyes," Elliott said. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. January 1, 2003. In 1970, a documentary about the exercise was released. Lasting Impact of Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment, Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. Strong, Effective and Ethical Lessons | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. Facilitators should be aware that Jane Elliott's focus on white people can lead viewers to the wrong impression that people of color are passively molded by white people's behavior when, in actuality, people of color can and do respond to racism in a variety of ways. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). Hire a professional with VAST experience! Jane Elliott Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. Select from the 0 categories from which you would like to receive articles. They embraced the experiments reductive message, as well as its promised potential, thereby keeping the implausible rationale of Elliotts crusade alive and well for decades, however flawed and racist it really was. Open Document. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. On the other hand, privileged members of the community are treated as in-groups which earn them undue respect and capacity to abuse the less advantaged. 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. Watch it online right now! Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. "It's Riceville 30 years ago. Part of the problem is that the blue-eyed group is exclusively white, while the brown-eyed group is predominantly non-white, so that eye colour is no longer an analogue or metaphor for race but a . To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. Now, almost four decades later, Elliott's experiment still mattersto the grown children with whom she experimented, to the people of Riceville, population 840, who all but ran her out of town, and to thousands of people around the world who have also participated in an exercise based on the experiment. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the children who had blue eyes that they were superior to the children with brown eyes; that they were better, nicer and smarter. She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. But the protests happening now have given her hope. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. 4 Pages. . The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. At points, you are likely to feel uncomfortable. Many educators responded by holding mandatory workshops on institutional racism and implicit bias, reforming teaching methods and lesson plans and searching for ways to amplify undersung voices. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). I felt mad. Things even got violent at recess. Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. They also harassed them constantly. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. Zimbardocreator of the also controversial 1971 Stanford Prisoner Experiment, which was stopped after college student volunteers acting as "guards" humiliated students acting as "prisoners"says Elliott's exercise is "more compelling than many done by professional psychologists. You've still got that same sweet smile. The next day, Jane made it known to the students that she had made a mistake and that the brown-eyed pupils were better and smarter than their counterparts. Dick DeMarsico/New York World-Telegram & the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty Images, Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, Elliott had a talk with her students about diversity and racism. ", Steve Harnack, 62, served as the elementary school principal beginning in 1977. Ethical Issues With Jane Elliott's Experiment 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: Terms of Use Elliotts bullying rejoinder to any nonbeliever was to say that however much pain a white person felt after one or two days of made-up discrimination was nothing when compared to what Blacks endure daily. Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. Jane Elliot, a third-grade teacher from Lowa town, became troubled with the turn of events and knew that something had to be done about racial discrimination (Danko, 2013). Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she pioneered an experiment to show her all-white class of third graders what it was like to be Black in America. And StanfordUniversity psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo writes in his 1979 textbook, Psychology and Life, that Elliott's "remarkable" experiment tried to show "how easily prejudiced attitudes may be formed and how arbitrary and illogical they can be." The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. Some people feel we can't move on when you have her out there hawking her 30-year-old experiment. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be relevant. She gave the blue-eyed students an armband so other students could more easily identify them, and then she told her class that it was a scientific fact that people with brown eyes are smarter than those with blue because their bodies had more . Today, she says, it's still playing out as the U.S. reckons with racial injustice. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . Privacy Statement Ethical Principles of Psychologists & Code of Conduct - StudyMode 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. Jane Elliott, an educator and anti-racism activist, first conducted her blue eyes/brown eyes exercise in her third-grade classroom in Iowa in 1968. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. Why is Jane Elliot's exercise problematic for some people? After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . As a school teacher in the small town of Riceville, Iowa, Elliott first conducted the anti-racism experiment on her all-white third-grade classroom, the day after the civil rights leader was killed. Given the long-term results of the experiment, the controversial study could not have taken place in today's society despite its significant insights on matters racism. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." "Maybe the way to sell the exercise would have been to invite the parents in, to talk about what she'd be doing. Thats what it feels like when youre discriminated against., -A child participant in the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes experiment-. One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. Through this study, Elliot demonstrated how easy it is for prejudice and discrimination to emerge from just a simple message that people with one eye color are superior to people with another eye color. ", Elliott says the role of a teacher is to enhance students' moral development. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. The same experiment was also used a couple of years later with adults. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. PDF Discrimination: Experimental Evidence from Psychology and Economics Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation activity, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of nonblack teacher education students toward blacks. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. Your Privacy Rights Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. Scores of others did participate. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. (2022, Apr 06). I felt mad. I want to know why youre so willing to accept it or to allow it to happen for others., The first reaction I get from teachers, who see this film or from hearing, hear me discuss what I do say to me How can you do that to these little children? They were also relevant in the 1950s when Elliott first began this work. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. It seemed to evince that all white people had to do to learn about racism was restrain themselves from an impulse to engage in made-up cruelty. The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. In this documentary, Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher divided her class into two groups based on their eye color; one group had blue eyes and the other had brown eyes. Blue Eyed vs Brown Eyed Study Conducted by Jane Elliott Presentation by Bree Elliott Ethics Background The Results In 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated, Jane Elliott was the teacher of a third grade class in the town of Riceville, Iowa. Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. Having in mind that it would be difficult to explain to third graders about discrimination, she needed to be more practical so that her student could understand how discrimination and prejudice felt. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy.

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