The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". . Then tell them that . Below, . One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. "Would you like to come on the show?" APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . . Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. From the moment the experiment begins, Jane Elliott uses a mean tone to speak to the participants. 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 . New York: Elsevier Science. Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . This was intentional. The next day, Elliott reversed the roles. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. Advertising Notice Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage. From the University of California Press website: The never-before-told true story of Jane Elliott and the "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment" she made world-famous, using eye color to simulate racism. people are better than blue-eyed people. 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. Blue-eyed students slumped in their chairs, as though . Traditionally, society has always treated leadership as a male issue. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. She began this work in Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). The never-before-told true story of Jane Elliott and the "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment" she made world-famous, using eye color to simulate racism. That got the other teachers angry. ", 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?". She believed that experience was the only way her students could understand how it felt like to be discriminated. As a journalism professor and author of a book on race that spans more than 50 years, Ive watched these developments with great concern. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. Jane Elliott was a third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa when she developed the Blue Eyed/ Brown Eyed exercise to teach the effects of racism. It's the Jane Elliott machine. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. 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. While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third-graders about racism. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. Mental Floss, 4. PracticalPsychology. She has spoken at more than 350 colleges and universities. "We want to see Room No. In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." Order from one of our vetted writers instead. Shermer and Bloom discuss: "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes" Jane Elliott famous racism experiment reactions to it (in the classroom, locally, nationally, internationally) whether the "experiment" was really more of a demonstration public interest, from Johnny Carson to Oprah Winfrey the questionable ethics of the experiment what it reveals about tribalism, racism . 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. Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. Elliott went after Ken and Barbie all day long, drilling, accusing, ridiculing them, to make the point that whites make baseless judgments about Blacks all the time, Pasicznyk said. "It would be hard to know, wouldn't it, unless we actually experienced discrimination ourselves. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. The corn grows so fast in northern Iowafrom seedling to seven-foot-high stalk in 12 weeksthat it crackles. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. "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. Yes, that day was tough. This procedure is sometimes so subtle that no one notices it happening. She was a standing-room-only speaker at hundreds of colleges and universities. The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. 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. "Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown-eyed people are better than those with blue eyes," Elliott said. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise ." 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. Throughout the investigation, the classroom represented a real-life scenario in which the unprivileged and minority members of the society are treated as out-groups making them susceptible to discrimination. She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. It brings up immediate anger and hatred. 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 She slumped. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: The American Psychologists Principles and code of conduct state that in cases of deception, experimenters should take into consideration the potential harmful effects to participants. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. See Page 1. "It changed my life. If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the next Monday, several teachers got up and walked out. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. 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. ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. Everyone's tired of her. Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. We use them to divide and destroy people., White peoples number one freedom, in the United States of America, is the freedom to be totally ignorant of those who are other than white. "They shot that King yesterday. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. In Building Moral Intelligence: The Seven Essential Virtues That Teach Kids to Do the Right Things, educational psychologist Michele Borda says it "teaches our children to counter stereotypes before they become full-fledged, lasting prejudices and to recognize that every human being has the right to be treated with respect." She asked her students, who were all white, whether or not they knew what it felt like to be judged by the color of their skin. Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. ", We backed out. 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. one girl asked. The contents of Exploring Your Mind are for informational and educational purposes only. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. Open Document. "How do you think it would feel to be a Negro boy or girl?" They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. Considering all the stereotypes and prejudices that exist, what kind of damage is being done? What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? More than 50 years after she first tried that exercise in her classroom, Elliott, now 87, said she sees much more work left to do to change racist attitudes. Hundreds of viewers wrote letters saying Elliott's work appalled them. The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. It was the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 that Elliott ran her first "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise in her Riceville, Iowa classroom. Elliott was featured on nearly every national news show in America for decades. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. On Monday, Elliott reversed the exercise, and the brown-eyed kids were told how shifty, dumb and lazy theywere. Jane Elliott, one of the most controversial figures in U.S. education and diversity training, began her journey to international acclaim in Riceville, Iowa. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. On the second day, the roles were reversed, and those with brown eyes received special treatment, and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior (A Class, 2003). Throughout the day, Elliott continued to give the children with blue eyes special treatment. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. 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. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. "This here is Jane Elliott," I said. 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." The textbook publisher McGraw-Hill has listed her on a timeline of key educators, along with Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Horace Mann, Booker T. Washington, Maria Montessori and 23 others. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. "She got carried away by this possession she developed over human beings. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Although Jane Elliot's intentions were to teach the youngsters about racism, ethical issues related to the simulation were raised. She could feel a chasm forming between the two groups of students. In fact, most of the initial response was negative. "We just want to peek in," I volunteered. At first, she cooperated with me. He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. We dont have to learn about those who are other than white. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. "That you, Ms. "He's a bluey! She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". "Malinda? With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. . Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. Malinda Whisenhunt? 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. And what she did caused an uproar. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the We have to let people find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of that which we dish out so readily.". In the most uncomfortable moments, Elliott reminds the students of violent acts caused by racism or homophobia. 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. Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. (In later versions of the exercise, children in the inferior group were given collars to wear.). The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves, students with blue eyes and those with brown. Basically, you establish differences between a set of subjects in order to divide them into separate groups. If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". Elliott was not. I felt mad. The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. She chatted about the experiment, and before she knew it was whisked off the stage. Immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Professor Jane Elliott used the minimal group paradigm to perform an experiment that would teach her students about race discrimination. When she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. How can put those little children through that exercise for a day? And they seem unable to relate the sympathy that theyre feeling for these little white children for a day to what happens to children of color in this society for a lifetime or to the fact that they are doing this to children based on skin color every day. It makes you proud. The video . "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. "Probably because they have been taught how they're treated in this country that they have to understand us. To get her points across, Elliott hurled insults at workshop participants, particularly those who were white and had blue eyes. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. The story was then picked up by the Associated Press. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". You can contribute to that positive change by watching the documentary. Introduction. I felt mad. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. I felt like hitting them if I wanted to. But not Elliott. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. Two years later, a BBC documentary captured the experiment in Elliott's classroom. This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Monday, March 7, 2016. Given the ethical concerns, will you still rely on a quasi-experimental research design as a source of information in counselling psychology? Jane Elliot and the Blue-Eyed Children Experiment. In 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated the United States was in turmoil. 980 Words. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. 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. 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. I was stunned. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. "You better apologize to us for getting in our way because we're better than you are," one of the brownies said. 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. Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. On the first day of the experiment, she declared the brown-eyed group superior and gave them extra privileges like seconds at lunch, extra recess time, and access to the new school playground. In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. Watch it online right now! The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. 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. Racism is not genetical. After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. At the time, she was a third-grade . 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. I have brown eyes. ", Walt Gabelmann, 83, was Riceville's mayor for 18 years beginning in 1966. The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment: Investigation. Blue Eyed versus Brown Eyed Students Jane Elliott was not a psychologist, but she developed one of the most famously controversial exercises in 1968 by dividing students into a blue-eyed group and . The anti-racism sessions Elliott led were intense. "She taught in this school for 18 years." Stephen G. Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Today, she says, it's still playing out as the U.S. reckons with racial injustice. Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. Locals say that drivers don't signal when they turn because everyone knows where everyone else is going. ", "I've never forgotten the exercise," Whisenhunt volunteered. The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. You didnt understand the directions. One group consisted pupils with brown eye while the other group consisted of those with blue eyes. Children with brown eyes were forced to wear armbands that made it easy for people to see that they had brown eyes. The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts.
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