blue eyes brown eyes experiment ethical issues
The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. Once indoors, the brown-eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue-eyed group could only stand around and wait. 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. In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. Cookie Policy Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. 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. Carson asked, grinning. Things even got violent at recess. I felt like quitting school. Racism is not genetical. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/ethical-concerns-in-jane-elliots-experiment, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. 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 . Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. I think it can. "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. It is quite powerful to watch. Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". "He's a bluey! Junior high, maybe. She has led training sessions at General Electric, Exxon, AT&T, IBM and other corporations, and has lectured to the IRS, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Education and the Postal Service. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. Then tell them that . The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. Traditionally, society has always treated leadership as a male issue. Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? Elliott was featured on nearly every national news show in America for decades. The nearest traffic light is 20 miles away. Advertising Notice ", Elliott says the role of a teacher is to enhance students' moral development. ", We backed out. Stripping away the veneer of the experiment, what was left had nothing to do with race. In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University . She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. "She said, on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, 'I don't know why you're doing that I thought it was about time somebody shot that son of a bitch,' " she said. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. She began this work in Jane Elliott, one of the most controversial figures in U.S. education and diversity training, began her journey to international acclaim in Riceville, Iowa. They were also relevant in the 1950s when Elliott first began this work. "Malinda? In a similar vein, Linda Seebach, a conservative columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, wrote in 2004 that Elliott was a "disgrace" and described her exercise as "sadistic," adding, "You would think that any normal person would realize that she had done an evil thing. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. The students were surprised, but they didnt argue. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. 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. 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. After the exercise white college students in . Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. "That you, Ms. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Would you like to find out? Blue Eye/Brown Eye is an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. She told them brown-eyed . She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. The idea was simple but profound. Privacy Statement The three outcomes are: (1) virtually all of the subjects reported that the experience was Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. New York: Elsevier Science. Classroom experiment. They are more civilized than blue-eyed people. At points, you are likely to feel uncomfortable. I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. Today, she says, it's still playing out as the U.S. reckons with racial injustice. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Elliot said that when the children were given the test on the same day that they were in the superior group, they tended to get the highest scores. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. 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. Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. Your Privacy Rights SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." In fact, most of the initial response was negative. 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. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. However, both Mary and Zeke have brown eyes. But the protests happening now have given her hope. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. a brown-eyed boy asked. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! When Sarah, the Elliotts' oldest daughter, went to the girls' bathroom in junior high, she came out of a stall to see a message scrawled in red lipstick on the mirror: "Nigger lover.". (2022, Apr 06). Open Document. 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. I have brown eyes. Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. View Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd Grade Lesson for Us All.pdf from HUMN 330 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. . 1. 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 . Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. 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. However, the study shows some bias in the sample size and race of participants. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. It's the Jane Elliott machine. 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." Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue-eyed kids to wear one. The nonstop parade of sickening events such as the murder of George Floyd surely is not going to be abated by a quickie experiment led by a white person for the alleged benefit of other whites as was the case with the blue-eyed, brown eyed experiment. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. Hire a professional with VAST experience! "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. Elliot's approach to the experiment involved creativity in which the pupils' age and ability to comprehend discrimination was taken into account. "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. On the morning of april 5, 1968, a Friday, Steven Armstrong stepped into Jane Elliott's third-grade classroom in Riceville, Iowa. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. 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.
