Blue Eye/Brown Eye
Experiment
Jill, Jassmin, Marlene
Purpose
To try segregation
through eye color
instead of skin color.
It was a result of
Martin Luther King
Jr.’s assassination, as
well as the idea was
derived from Hitler’s
attempt at the
holocaust.
Who?
Jane Elliot was the creator of the experiment.
Her students (grade 3) served as her guinea pigs.
The Experiment
On the first day, the blue-eyed children were
called superior. The brown-eyed kids were told
to wear blue collars to show they were
inferior.
The blue-eyed children received special
privileges, such as:
• Second helpings at lunch
• Got to play on the new jungle gym
• Five minutes of extra recess
• And got to sit at the front of the room
The blue-eyed children
were encouraged to only
play with blue-eyed
children and ignore
brown-eyed children.
Blue-eyes and brown-eyes
were not allowed to drink
from the same water
fountain.
Brown-eyed children were
often scolded for
mistakes.
A large change happened in the first fifteen
minutes.
At first, the minority group, brown-eyes,
resisted. Elliot told them that the blue-eyed
children were smarter because of their blueeyes. They stopped resisting.
The blue-eyes became bossy
and arrogant, while the
brown-eyes became timid
and obedient.
The second day, brown-eyed
children were superior.
Less intense taunting came from
the brown-eyed children.
At the end of the day, Elliot told
the blue-eyed children to take
off the collars and all the
children cried and hugged
each other.
What was discovered?
There was almost immediate change in the
children's behavior towards the minority
group. It was discovered that when someone
is told that they are better/smarter than
someone, they begin to act like they are
superior.
It exposes our part in prejudice, showing what it
really is. Which is an irrational class system
based on nothing.
• The children that were superior their grades
went up during mathematical and reading
tasks that seemed outside their ability before.
• The inferior children failed tasks that before
had been simple.
It exposes our part in prejudice, showing what it
really is. Which is an irrational class system
based on nothing.
How did it change psychology?
Added her information to the knowledge base and
showed how powerful the power of suggestion can
be with people.
Her study also showed how readily people will accept
ideas told to them by an authority figure.
In conclusion, we are being taught by Jane how racism
is created.
Self fulfilling prophecy: a prediction that directly or
indirectly causes itself to become true by the very
terms of the prophecy itself due to positive or
negative feedback
Video!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew_2Gjb5ek&feature=related
Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott
http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=jane+elliott&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=X&tbs=isz:m&tbm=isch&tbnid=6Z
_y9T73BAevM:&imgrefurl=http://www.cptc.edu/jane/&docid=JrAz0AQjYCRwZM&w=435&h=298&ei=Yehw
TqfvEIOtsAL9_KzgCQ&zoom=1&biw=1264&bih=830&iact=rc&dur=235&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=187&st
art=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0&tx=116&ty=55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew_2G-jb5ek&feature=related
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