On 5th April 1968 Jane Elliott conducted a classroom exercise with the objective to experience discrimination and hence curb racism. To get learning points from the assassination of Martin Luther King, she asked her 9-year-old students whether they wanted to participate in an exercise where they would judge each other by their eye colour and they consented.
The brown eyed students were told that they were better and smarter than their blue eyed counterparts. Jane Elliott supported her pitch by explaining that melanin, the pigment in their eyes, corresponds to their intelligence. The brown eyed students were praised. As for the ones with blue eyes, they were accused of being shifty, lazy and dishonest. Only those with brown eyes had an extended recess. The students were told not to play with each other. Blue eyed students had to wear collars and cups …show more content…
Explain using what you know using social psychology.
According to Lavoie from education-portal.com, the Availability Heuristic is a “mental shortcut” that “ judges the probability of events by how quickly and easily examples can come to mind”A Singaporean would be aware that physical punishments are common in Asians families having experienced it. Many Asian families enforce discipline by not sparing the rod, hence the severity of the beating is brought down even though excessive force was used in this particular event. However, if this occurred in a Western environment, the outcomes would assumably be different due to cultural differences.
Myers (2009) states that Informational influence is “conformity under acceptance of evidence about reality which has been provided by others”. In this case, the bystanders conform by not reacting to the old lady beating the child and remain ambiguious due to the lack of knowledge. They seek guidance from the crowd which also do not react, hence explaning the lack of
The brown eyed students were told that they were better and smarter than their blue eyed counterparts. Jane Elliott supported her pitch by explaining that melanin, the pigment in their eyes, corresponds to their intelligence. The brown eyed students were praised. As for the ones with blue eyes, they were accused of being shifty, lazy and dishonest. Only those with brown eyes had an extended recess. The students were told not to play with each other. Blue eyed students had to wear collars and cups …show more content…
Explain using what you know using social psychology.
According to Lavoie from education-portal.com, the Availability Heuristic is a “mental shortcut” that “ judges the probability of events by how quickly and easily examples can come to mind”A Singaporean would be aware that physical punishments are common in Asians families having experienced it. Many Asian families enforce discipline by not sparing the rod, hence the severity of the beating is brought down even though excessive force was used in this particular event. However, if this occurred in a Western environment, the outcomes would assumably be different due to cultural differences.
Myers (2009) states that Informational influence is “conformity under acceptance of evidence about reality which has been provided by others”. In this case, the bystanders conform by not reacting to the old lady beating the child and remain ambiguious due to the lack of knowledge. They seek guidance from the crowd which also do not react, hence explaning the lack of