Brown Eye Experiment

RESEARCH ARTICLE REPORT Choice: C

Caitlin Bordzuk
Michael H. Feldler
Psych 105
14 October 2014
Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Through the eyes of a kindergarten class, prejudice dynamics were shown in a simple yet powerful experiment. On April 5 1968 Jane Elliot preformed the famous experiment in her classroom separating blue-eyed and brown-eyed students. She had separated them by making one eye group inferior to the other making them have certain benefits and better treatment than the other. Then it was switched the next day. In this they saw how colors and discrimination affected the minority population.
After Martin Luther King had died and her students questioned a king’s death, she thought of a way to impact
In this particular experiment she had done on her class, the student would be the independent variable being manipulated by the researcher. The “better” students of the day, which began with blue because that was the eye color of Jane, would get special privileges. Some of the freedoms included drinking from the water fountain while the opposite eyes had to drink from cups, certain students got a longer recess and snack time, and all around they would be treated better than the students who were beneath them. “On the first day, Elliott told her students that those with blue eyes were superior in intelligence and gave them extra classroom privileges. She told the students with brown eyes that they were inferior. Quickly, the students with "superior" color began to oppress those of "inferior" color, while those of the "inferior" color had a negative reaction and experienced self-hatred and fear.”(McCurry1). The dependent variable would be the lesson itself. She kept the same dynamic with each switch displaying the effects of racism. Giving the children an opportunity to feel the effects of discriminatory practices would change them for the better, giving an inside look on what racism feels
Jane’s co-workers would leave the break room if she had walked in, many residents of her town were not happy with her either. “Two education professors in England, Ivor F. Goodson and Pat Sikes, suggest that Elliott 's experiment was unethical because the participants weren 't informed of its real purpose beforehand”(Bloom4). She did not ask the students’ parents either so that could have posed as an issue. During that time there were a good amount of parents that had racist mindsets, and that might have prevented this experiment from ever happening. It seems like a harmless experiment that was only to better the younger population and start new. Elliot likes to call this an exercise rather than an experiment. As far as an impact on psychological studies and growth as a nation, she had helped students and others after she gained recognition. Presenting not only to students in a classroom but moved on to speeches and other anti-racial progressive acts, Jane Elliot was an important part to bringing people together; showing what a ridiculous thing like treating someone different by what she demonstrated with, color, can do to anyone. In the end the students hugged and cried with each other, understanding they would not treat anyone that way because they had learned first-hand what it felt like. Years after the children had grown into adults they had a reunion. They mentioned how it changed their lives and how it helped shape them as