Have you ever heard of this social experiment that was done a long time ago.?
A teacher in 1968, following days after MLK was murdered, decided to teach kids about racism. It ended up becoming a famous experiment about how people who are discriminated against will often do the same back to others. And that we are all equally capable of being taught to discriminate even when we ourselves have faced discrimination and know what it’s like.
Here is the premise. (All kids were white, I believe)
The teacher told the students that blue eye color students were smarter than brown eye color students because the pigment in brown eyes was related to lower intelligence.
Here is the rest copied from Wikipedia
"Initially, there was resistance among the students in the minority group to the idea that blue-eyed children were better than brown-eyed children. To counter this, Elliott led the children to believe the false premise that melanin was linked to their higher intelligence and learning ability. Shortly thereafter, the initial resistance fell away. Those who were deemed “superior” became arrogant, bossy, and otherwise unpleasant to their “inferior” classmates. Their grades on simple tests improved, and they completed mathematical and reading tasks that had seemed outside their ability before. The “inferior” classmates also transformed – into timid and subservient children who scored more poorly on tests, and even during recess isolated themselves, including those who had previously been dominant in the class. These children’s academic performance suffered, even with tasks that had been simple before.[10]
The next Monday, Elliott reversed the exercise, making the brown-eyed children superior. While the brown-eyed children did taunt the blue-eyed children in ways similar to what had occurred the previous day, Elliott reports it was much less intense. To reflect on the experience, she asked the children to write down what they had learned.[6]"
Have you ever heard of this social experiment that was done a long time ago.?
A teacher in 1968, following days after MLK was murdered, decided to teach kids about racism. It ended up becoming a famous experiment about how people who are discriminated against will often do the same back to others. And that we are all equally capable of being taught to discriminate even when we ourselves have faced discrimination and know what it’s like.
Here is the premise. (All kids were white, I believe)
The teacher told the students that blue eye color students were smarter than brown eye color students because the pigment in brown eyes was related to lower intelligence.
Here is the rest copied from Wikipedia
"Initially, there was resistance among the students in the minority group to the idea that blue-eyed children were better than brown-eyed children. To counter this, Elliott led the children to believe the false premise that melanin was linked to their higher intelligence and learning ability. Shortly thereafter, the initial resistance fell away. Those who were deemed “superior” became arrogant, bossy, and otherwise unpleasant to their “inferior” classmates. Their grades on simple tests improved, and they completed mathematical and reading tasks that had seemed outside their ability before. The “inferior” classmates also transformed – into timid and subservient children who scored more poorly on tests, and even during recess isolated themselves, including those who had previously been dominant in the class. These children’s academic performance suffered, even with tasks that had been simple before.[10]
The next Monday, Elliott reversed the exercise, making the brown-eyed children superior. While the brown-eyed children did taunt the blue-eyed children in ways similar to what had occurred the previous day, Elliott reports it was much less intense. To reflect on the experience, she asked the children to write down what they had learned.[6]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott
Here is an in-depth article by PBS on it. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/introduction-2/
Here is a documentary about it , also made by PBS. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1mcCLm_LwpE
It’s a fascinating experiment into human behavior and self reflection. And how superiority complex changes performance and personality.