"If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? Solve your problem differently! Elliott was featured on nearly every national news show in America for decades. "They shot that King yesterday. Written and verified by the psychologist Francisco Roballo. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. "She stirs people up. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. At lunchtime, Elliott hurried to the teachers' lounge. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? She told them brown-eyed . That phrase came to my mind when I watched the video, A Class Divided, about education experiment to teach stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination (Frontline, 1985 . About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Elliott was not. This technique allows researchers to show how many different traits are necessary to create defined groups, and then analyze the subjects behavior within their groups. In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. 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 Everyone's tired of her. Its not surprising to anyone that some social groups discriminate against others due to ethnicity, religion, or culture. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" The children said yes, and the exercise began. 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. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. But the protests happening now have given her hope. Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. one girl asked. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . 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. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. They didnt need to engage with a single Black person. Then tell them that . Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? 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. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . "Would you like to come on the show?" Open Document. Let's just move on. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. ISBN 9780520382268. While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. 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. Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, Elliott had a talk with her students about diversity and racism. In doing the research for my book with scores of peoples who were participants in the experiment, I reached out to Elliott. Watch it online right now! Terms of Use With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. Would you like to find out? Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. Today, she says, it's still playing out as the U.S. reckons with racial injustice. After the exercise white college students in . Decent Essays. I was stunned. Almost immediately, it was apparent that she had created segregation and prejudice given that the blue-eyed students began exhibiting signs of dominion and superiority. In 1970, a documentary about the exercise was released. One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. "Malinda? "It would be hard to know, wouldn't it, unless we actually experienced discrimination ourselves. 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." How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? I felt mad. 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. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. It makes you proud. 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. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. "The racists carry on, so I carry on." The lives and legacies of Dr. Jane Elliott and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are inextricably linked. She has . With over 2 million YouTube subscribers, over 500 articles, and an annual reach of almost 12 million students, it has become one of the most popular sources of psychological information. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. On Monday, Elliott reversed the exercise, and the brown-eyed kids were told how shifty, dumb and lazy theywere. The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. To begin with, Jane Elliot's experiment involved deception in which the children were made in believing that change in eye color influence intelligence. Not a day goes by without me thinking about it, Ms. Elliott. It is quite powerful to watch. She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. And what she did caused an uproar. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. This was intentional. In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. In the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Elliott developed a simple exercise that explored the nature of racism and prejudice.. Elliott's method for exploring racism in the context of an all-white classroom consisted of dividing her students into two groups on the basis of eye color, blue or brown (those with other eye colors were assigned to the group . The results are mixed. She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. (2010). (2013). The May 25 killing of George Floyd set off weeks of nationwide protests over the police abuse and racism against black people, plunging the U.S. into a reckoning of racial inequality. Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. 4. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. The roots of racism and why it continues unabated in America and other nations are complicated and gnarled. That same year, Elliott was invited to the White House Conference on Children and Youth to conduct an exercise on adult educators. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. She has spoken at more than 350 colleges and universities. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was also an event that spurred educators to action, motivating one teacher to try out a bold experiment touted to reduce racism. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. 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. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." "It's Riceville 30 years ago. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. "He's a bluey! 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. Things even got violent at recess. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. Mental Floss, 4. ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. 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. 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. But not Elliott. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. 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. She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. Jane Elliott at Riceville, Iowa, Elementary School in 1968. See Page 1. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. "This here is Jane Elliott," I said. Researchers later concluded that there was evidence that the students became less prejudiced after the study and that it was inconclusive as to whether or not the potential harm outweighed the benefits of the exercise. At the time, she was a third-grade . The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . Although actions from the experiment show lack of respect towards subjects it has widely been recognized in the study of human behavior in social and cultural context. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. Essay Example, Essay Example on Racism Towards Black People, Essay Sample about Developing a Campaign for School Intimidation, Essay Example on Therapist-Client Relationship Boundaries, Islamic Perspective on Euthanasia, Free Essay Sample. She began this work in She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. ", For years scholars have evaluated Elliott's exercise, seeking to determine if it reduces racial prejudice in participants or poses a psychological risk to them. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown .