Bloom's latest book, Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Racism and Brutality, published by the University of California Press, probes the complex issues surrounding Jane Elliott, the third-grade Iowa schoolteacher who in 1968 implemented a provocative experiment that inculcated white students with the devastating personal impact of . In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise." This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of . Their teacher, Jane Elliott, wanted to teach her third . The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves, students with blue eyes and those with brown. Eye Color The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. I just discovered that PBS provides the entire documentary "A Class Divided" online. On the first day, blue-eyed children are . "My people moved far from the Equator, and that's the only reason my skin is lighter.". Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground — and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. Let's start with two of the most central issues of the past year: racial justice and the pandemic. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. They are more civilized than blue-eyed people. Year: 2009. Blue eyed/brown eyed experiment The issues in this study were that she separated her class into two groups one being the brown eyed group and the other being blue eyed group, where the brown eyed kids were treated well better then the blue eyed children. The next day, the brown eyed people were placed higher on the social pedestal, being given longer recess . It's called the "Blue Eyes - Brown Eyes" exercis. Over the course of the time, the brown eyed people buy into the experiment and start to say why they're better than blue-eyed people. The critical Paradigm applies to the Blue Eyed vs Brown eyed to the experiment due to the fact that the element involved in critical paradigm is ideology which is power and control .The dominant high authority was Ms. Elliot and she took the reigns and had control over the children's thinking. Watch Preview. people are better than blue-eyed people. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 1898-1921. The next day the exercise was reversed. An outline of the experiment is provide below. Ethical standards are. But there are many issues with the evaluation. The video . Stripping away the. The only empirical study dealing specifically with the "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes" was Weiner and Wright's (1973) investigation of 31 third graders who, in a simulation, were divided into two groups. Very interesting. E. (2003). January 1, 2003. One example that has been in place for many years is the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment. As a schoolteacher, she became known for her "Blue eyes/Brown eyes" exercise, which she first conducted with her third-grade class on April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Psychological Experiments Online. You can start from that point in Activity 2, or you can play the video from the beginning (00:00) so that your students can see civil rights era footage following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as Elliott's students returning to Iowa . She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyes—and the smarter the person. The Robbers Cave experiment was a famous psychology study that looked at how conflict develops between groups. Such Jane Elliott, Creator of the "Blue/Brown Eyes" Experiment, Says Racism Is Easy To Fix. The Eye of the Storm is a documentary directed by William Peters in 1970. The American Psychological Association has a set of rules, a Code of Conduct that describes the ethics that should be followed during an experiment. psychology experiments are used to test a psychologists hypotheses or evaluate something. After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . In the brown eyed/blue eyed experiment Jane Elliot told her third graders with blue eyes that they were better than the brown-eyed children. Jane Elliott (née Jennison; born November 30, 1933) is an American diversity educator. One group experienced prejudice and discrimination for several days and then became the discriminators for several days. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. Ethics + Religion; Health; . The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Then tell them that . Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In the eyes task, the photographs were coupled with two words which described a mental state. Report on Ethical Dilemma With Reference of Blue eyes- Brown eyes" experiment Psychology Description of the experiment selected The experiment selected is the "Blue eyes- Brown eyes" experiment which was first carried by the American activist against racism and a primary school teacher, Jane Elliot. Elliott came to prominence when, the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, she took her classroom of all-white third graders in Riceville, Iowa, and decided to teach them what it was like to face discrimination.She separated the kids into two groups — those with brown eyes and those with blue — and proceeded to proclaim the brown . Publication in the local newspaper of compositions the children had written about the experience led . . In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people are superior to blue . Blue-eyed students slumped in their chairs, as though . 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. The Republic; 1981; 1971; 1983; January . She allowed the blue-eyed children to have special privileges, and made the brown-eyed children wear a collar, and she criticized everything that they did (A Class, 2003). The researchers divided boys at a summer camp into two groups, and they studied how conflict developed between them. The brown-eyed children had to wear collars . To emphasise the effects of discrimination and group bias on personal attribute and self-esteem. In the aftermath of the Martin Luther King assassination, she wanted to teach her students what discrimination felt like. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. So, unbeknownst to her students, she performed an experiment. A program evaluation of Jane Elliott's "blue eyes/brown eyes" diversity training exercise. The same experiment was also used a couple of years later with adults. The film was based on the "Brown Eyes - Blue Eyes" exercise, made popular by a third grade teacher in Iowa. The results were remarkable. What values and ethical issues did the experiment express? This is the account of an experiment done in a rural town in Iowa, so daring that it made national news and people across the country became aware of this experiment. But there are many issues with the evaluation. during and two weeks after the experience and found that the stress and issues related to being discriminated against interfered with the students' ability to perform. Elizabeth Hopper. In this film however, they choose to deal with blue eyed people, versus brown eyed people. . Blue-eyed people get an extra five minutes of recess, and the two groups aren't allowed to play with one another on the playground. Soon, the children took to this opinion of blue eyes and brown eyes, the blue eyes quickly turning on the brown eyes, leading to interclass violence. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? The color brown is a result of a high concentration of melanin in the iris, causing more light to be absorbed and less light to be reflected. Elliott first created stereotyping situation among the children by separating them into two groups by easily recognized physical traits as blue eyes and brown eyes. An Example from Baron-Cohen's eyes task. Therefore, researchers under the Critical . She gave privileges to blue eyed people one day and made the brown eyed people wear . Do the "eyes" have it? Do the "eyes" have it? Jane Elliott's experiment of dividing an otherwise homogenous group of school kids by their eye color. Jane Elliott first gave this lesson on April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes Exercise. Risks to participants, such as coercion, informed consent, and stress, were weighed against the individual and collective benefits of simulation participation. Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott's famous experiment says about race 50 years on. When . One of the words was the correct mental state displayed in the photograph and the other one was a foil. The blue eyes/brown eyes experiment, which could last one to three days, was at a glance similar to other human-potential-movement workshops of the era, including Werner Erhard's est training, in. Her class, And they are smarter than blue-eyed people." The brown-eyed children got to sit in the front of the room, to go to lunch first, and to have more time at recess. A program evaluation of Jane Elliott's "blue eyes/brown eyes" diversity training exercise. The teacher assigns positive qualities to blue-eyes (e.g., they are smarter), while making E. (2003). . Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. People with brown eyes make up between 55 and 79 . View the material (video and article) in each part and answer the questions that follow. When the blue-eyed people are brought into the room, some are required to sit at the feet of the brown-eyed people as Jane Elliott treats them according to negative traits that are commonly assigned to people of color, women, lesbians and gay men, people with disabilities, and other non-dominant members of society. Updated on November 21, 2019. • Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Topic_ Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd Grade Lesson for Us Al. It is a must . Introduction. It's hard to point out to people racial biases if they're not of that race. news of expert works on the most pressing issues of the day. Although the term social-emotional learning didn't exist in the 1960s, Jane Elliott's experiment is a rich example of how to help students understand the experiences and feelings of others. In Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes, teacher's famed, flawed, and immensely consequential social experiment conducted to reveal the pernicious consequences of bias and stigma. The film starts off with a reunion between the third graders who were in the film, "Eye of the Storm." A teacher put them through an experiment in which she initially tells them that the blue eyed children are better than the brown eyed. 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. People in the audience were separated by eye color; those with blue eyes were discriminated against while those with brown eyes were treated . Part of the problem is that the blue-eyed group is exclusively white, while the brown-eyed group is predominantly non-white, so that eye colour is no longer an analogue or metaphor for race but a . For example 'happy' and 'sad'. The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. She has . The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. . She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. A Class Divided portrays the reunion of a group of students who had taken part in a bold experiment in 1970. Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. The issue at hand with this experiment is will it cause permeant future psychological damage. For the first day, the "brown eyed" children are not able to go to recess, or lunch at the same time as the rest of the children. The Julius and Dorothy Koppelman Holocaust and Genocide Resource Center at Rider University will present a film, A Class Divided, on Wednesday, November 9, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Sweigart Auditorium, Room 115.Admission is free. The video discusses the experiment a teacher conducted in her classroom, in which she divided her 3rd-grade class into groups with blue eyes and brown eyes and told them the blue-eyed groups were "the better people in . Summary: This video features Jane Elliott's famous, yet controversial, "Blue Eyes / Brown Eyes" exercise. HUMN 330. She was a third-grade teacher in rural Iowa. Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes, A Lesson for Us All This activity contain two parts. An essay or paper on Two Important Psychological Experiments: The Blue Eye/Brown Eye and Stanford Prison. 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 . Ethical issues are a . Very interesting. One day in 1968, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and . Ethical Research: Ethical research safeguards the person's best interest and well-being. Two core issues that were displayed in this exercise where discrimination and equality. The class of third graders are told that blue-eyed people are smarter and better than brown-eyed people. The blue-eyed students, when told they were superior and offered privileges such as extra recess time, changed their behavior dramatically and their attitudes toward the children with brown eyes. The experiment is considered particularly unethical today because Albert was never desensitized to the phobias that Watson produced in him. • At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. Gwen Sharp, PhD on February 1, 2009. Brown eyes meant you were lazy, untruthful, and stupid. Famous for her 1968 "Blue eyes, Brown eyes" classroom exercise, anti-racism educator Jane Elliott does an interview with OprahMag.com on her work to end racism. Length: 47:27. Jane Elliot conducted a revolutionary experiment in1968 termed 'A Class Divided', in which she segregated her third graders; insisting that those with blue eyes were much more superior to those with brown eyes. She split her class into "blue eyes" and "brown eyes." On the first day, she favored the "brown eyes" and called attention to every mistake the "blue eyes" made. She began to demean the intelligence, punctuality and other aspects of brown eyed people. Season 1985 Episode 9 | 53m 5s |. The Lab Experiment : The Experiment, And The Blue Eyes Vs. Brown Eyes Experiment. For one, Jane Elliott herself put conditions on the research team. Jane divided her class into two groups, those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. . A class divided is a documentary about a teacher named Jane Elliot who teaches her students about racism first hand. The first day of the exercise, the group with blue eyes was the group with power and privilege and the brown eyed students were treated unfairly, unjustly and oppressively. The documentary focuses on Jane Elliot's third-grade class in Riceville, Iowa, where she conducts a two-day experiment surrounding the theme of discrimination. Brown Eyes vs. Blue Eyes Experiment (1968) Jane Elliot was not a psychologist. . They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. The Ethics of Deception. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. On Friday, April 5, 1968, in Riceville, IA, a third-grade student walked. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with their eye colors. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. On the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott's third graders from the small, all-white town of Riceville, Iowa, came to class . This is a graded discussion: 100 points possible due Oct 27, 2019 at 10:59pm 21 94 Module 2 Discussion Are We Still Divided? Mrs. More than 50 years after her famous exercise, Elliott is still fighting. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . The experiment is considered particularly unethical today because Albert was never desensitized to the phobias that Watson produced in him. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. In order to receive full credit, you must complete both parts. "The racists . What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? As you answer each question, consider the . She has conducted this experiment repeatedly for different groups since then, including the audience for an Oprah Winfrey show in 1992, known as The Anti-Racism Experiment That Transformed an Oprah Show. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. This article examines ethical issues in the use of prejudice-reduction simulations, with specific reference to evaluation research conducted on the BLUE EYES-BROWN EYES activity. Another Example from Baron-Cohen's eyes task. 1671. I feel that Elliot‟s experiment, as well as, Brown vs. the Board of Education (the decision that ordered the desegregation of American Schools), Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, and the election of Barack Obama, our first African-American President; was a „sea change‟- an event that promises profound . Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are advised that this video may contain images of people who have died.Jane Elliot's Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes exercise in . It took place shortly following the death of Martin Luther King Jr. On the second day of the experiment she switched the roles around and declared that those with brown eyes were better. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. In this article, we'll explore the details and history of the experiment and then discuss . A few days later the roles were reversed. For one, Jane Elliott herself put conditions on the research team. The blue eyed - brown eyed experiment in my opinion is indeed ethical. Elliott originally designed the exercise in the 1960s as a way to illustrate the inhumanity, the irrationality, and the immorality of racism, a system that, as her experiment has shown, people . NPR's John Ydstie talks with that educator, Jane Elliott, about her friend and colleague . Jane Elliott's experiment Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. "Wow," Ms. Pinkett Smith says . This article examines ethical issues in the use of prejudice-reduction simulations, with specific reference to evaluation research conducted on the BLUE EYES-BROWN EYES activity. Psychological Experiments Online is a multimedia online resource that synthesizes the most important psychological experiments of the 20th and 21st centuries, fostering deeper levels of understanding for students and scholars alike.The collection pairs 65 hours of audio and video recordings of the original experiments (when existent) with 45,000 pages of . 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. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 1898-1921. Jane Elliot (Blue eye - brown eye experiment) To reduce prejudice amongst children. She started to make negative statements about one group, and the children easily accepted these new values associated with each group. . Brown eyes became timid, submissive and performed less well academically. There's a social experiment, where people in the room with Brown eyes are treated better than people in the room with Blue eyes. 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. Results: Blue eyed children became bossy, arrogant, and smarter + showed discriminatory behaviour towards brown eyes. (The child died of an unrelated illness at age 6, so . They also investigated what did and didn't work to reduce group conflict. (The child died of an unrelated illness at age 6, so. Risks to participants, such as coercion, informed consent, and stress, were weighed against the individual and collective benefits of simulation participation. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott decided to divide her classroom into students with blue eyes and students 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,". Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are advised that this video may contain images of people who have died.Jane Elliot's Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes exercise in . The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Such Access: YouTube. Classroom experiment. Blue eyed children were given privileges. Thus began the famous blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment. eyes" and "brown-eyes." Brown-eyes are first defined as inferior to the blue-eyes by the teacher (the authority figure), and they are forced to wear collars, which simultane-ously magnifies their status and symbolically represents the yoke of oppression. She divided her class into two groups - blue eyed people and brown eyed people. But in reality, I found in researching for my book "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes" that the experiment was a sadistic exhibition of power and authority - levers controlled by Elliott. The brown-eyed children wear fabric collars so they can be identified from a distance. I'm a faded Black person," Ms. Elliott says, stunning the hosts. She divides the students into two groups, the blue eyes, and the brown eyes. In the days . 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).