Prejudice in the Classroom

Firsthand experience is a hard but effective way to develop an understanding of the devastating effects that prejudice can have on people and how easily members of the ingroup can become prejudiced toward others. In a dramatic demonstration of these points, Jane Elliot conducted a study with a group of third-grade children. The experiment began when the teacher announced that brown-eyed people were more intelligent and generally superior to blue-eyed people. Several classroom rules were established. Blue-eyed children had to sit at the back of the classroom and wait at the end of the line for recess, lunch, and other activities. The brown-eyed children were given virtually all classroom privileges. At first some of the children resisted, because many intergroup friendships existed. But the members of each group quickly became socialized to the new group norms. The brown-eyed children began to act as if they were superior; some became quite vicious and nasty in their interactions with their blue-eyed classmates. The blue-eyed children also adopted roles. They began to do poorly in their lessons and refer to themselves with negative terms such as "bad" and "stupid." Intergroup friendships were broken and replaced with hatred.

After three very unpleasant days, the experiment was terminated when the teacher announced to the class what she had done. Most of the children were relieved to be able to drop their brown- or blue-eyed roles and to be reassured that all of them were, in fact, equal.

Elliot's study effectively demonstrates the extent to which a number of social and cognitive factors influence prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Based on your study of Chapter 18, can you identify these factors? Are there any examples of these phenomena on your campus? How might they be counteracted?

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