Jane Elliott Experiment: Blue And Brown Eyes

In the 1960s, the United States was in the midst of a social racial crisis. This is where the Jane Elliott experiment came into being. Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. The idea was simple but in-depth. She wanted to show her students that an arbitrary, fixed difference could separate them and make them turn against each other.

Immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Professor Jane Elliott used the minimal group paradigm to conduct an experiment that would teach her students about racial discrimination. The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology.

One basically establishes differences between a set of topics to divide them into separate groups. This technique allows researchers to show how many different traits are needed to create defined groups and then analyze the individual’s behavior in their groups.

The Jane Elliott experiment

Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, conducted a direct experiment with her students in the classroom. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. She also got the brown-eyed students to put paper bracelets on the blue-eyed students.

Eye color

With a few basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made it appear as if people with brown eyes were better. The students were surprised, but they did not oppose her. In this way, she created two different groups in the classroom:

• People with brown eyes. There were several students with brown eyes in the room. They felt superior and were supported by an authority figure (teacher). The brown-eyed students also had a kind of power over the blue-eyed students when they gave them paper bracelets.

• People with blue eyes. This was the smaller group. Elliott said those with blue eyes were less intelligent and less clean. Not only were there fewer students with blue eyes, but the divinity of authority was also against them.

Discrimination

The consequences of the small group were very quickly apparent. A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by an authority figure, split the students apart.

The children with brown eyes began to behave aggressively and hurt towards the children with blue eyes. The latter felt discriminated against by the students with brown eyes.

What did the discrimination look like?

Usually there is nothing special about having blue eyes. But in this classroom, one was now inferior if one had this eye color. The brown-eyed students began teasing and bullying the other students, and they did not want to play with the blue-eyed students during recess. They also harassed them constantly.

Jane Elliott the experiment and its result

The arbitrary division among the students was intensified during the experiment. It was actually so bad that it actually ended in physical violence. Children often fight, they quarrel, and sometimes they beat each other. But this time it was an eye color that was the cause.

On the second day, Elliott turned the groups around. She told the students that those with brown eyes were inferior, and then she repeated the experiment. The results were the same. 

From the Jane Elliott experiment in the classroom to the real world

When you read about this experiment, it’s hard not to question “brands”. If this arbitrary division, which Elliott enforced for a few hours, created so many problems in this classroom, then what can not happen on a larger scale?

What harm happens when you think about all the stereotypes and prejudices that exist?

It is not surprising to anyone that some social groups discriminate against others due to ethnicity, religion or culture. These differences lead to war and hatred. Even family members can turn against each other if some kind of authority decides that those differences are a problem.

A matter of upbringing

Jane Elliott has reflected a lot on the consequences of the experiment. She says it is shocking how students, who are usually sweet, cooperative and kind to each other, can suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory and hostile when they belong to a “superior” group.

The hatred and discrimination we see in adults usually stems from childhood. Society made them believe that they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender.

Minority groups today

This paradigm helps us to understand current problems associated with discrimination. Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people with different backgrounds to interact with others, which is often a source of conflict.

The peoples and cultures already present often feel threatened by new immigrants. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. As a result of these divisions, you see racial discrimination or even terrorism.

The importance of non-discrimination education

The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. Thus, the dominant group supported by the authorities will always have an advantage. This procedure is sometimes so discreet that no one notices it happening. Here are some tips to avoid or reduce this effect:

• Normalize the differences. In educational contexts, normalizing superficial differences between children can reduce feelings of superiority.
• Integration activities. It is important to mix individuals with different traits, beliefs and cultures as much as possible and get them to collaborate on a common goal.
• The role of the teacher. In an authoritarian environment, the group closest to authority divin (in this case the teacher) feels superior and justified. Therefore, teachers should be mediators, not instigators.

The Jane Elliott experiment demonstrates the fragility of coexistence and cooperation. It also shows how arbitrary and subjective things can turn friends, family members and citizens against each other.