Social Mode

I am reminded of an experiment done by a teacher, Jane Elliot, with her 32 3^rd grade school students in 1968. Mrs. Elliot came to class one day and announced students were to be divided based on eye color. First, the brown-eyed group was given preference and regarded as “superior” based on their eye color, with the other group repeatedly being considered inferior in intelligence and learning ability as well as having fewer privileges and less recess. On the second day of the experiment, Mrs. Elliot said she was mistaken and it was the blue-eyed group that was superior in every way. Thus, the values, bias’ and attitudes of the groups were completely reversed with blue-eyed students being regarded as superior and the brown-eyed being seen as inferior in every way.

Elliott gave tests to both groups on each day of the experiment. The students scored very low on the day they were racially “inferior” and very high on the day they were considered racially “superior.”

Other results:

• When expectations are set to do well and show improvement, people do. When those expectations are lacking, performance and the experiences are thwarted in a variety of ways.
• When we believe “the others” are inferior, we treat them that way independent of the ridiculousness of the basis provided.
• When we believe we are superior we treat others with discounted value showing that how we believe the world can have powerful effects on how things turn out.
• It is justifiable to treat someone poorly if you are told they are ‘evil’. When the reverse conditions are used, the superior group who was previously the ‘evil’ group, has an additional set of emotions that contribute to their poor treatment of others.

It is dangerous carnival that the bigotry, meanness, triviality and lack of value toward others can be institutionalized publicly every four years in America by two governing bodies when the country is rudderless of government leadership and when programs de jour are punctuated with felony indictments, earmarks, corporate handouts and loss of constitutional rights perpetuated by both groups.

Certainly have come a long way in those 40 years!