The Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment in Social Psychology

Running head: THE BLUE EYES VS. BROWN EYES EXPERIMENT
The Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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THE BLUE EYES VS. BROWN EYES EXPERIMENT
Social psychology is a scientific study that defines the process by which the thought,
feelings and behaviour of the people changes in the presence of other persons. Jane Elliot
pioneered the experiment in order to respond to the assassination of Martin Luther Junior, which
took place around thirty years ago. The famous experiment “The Blue eyes vs. the Brown eyes”.
marks the participants as inferior or superior based only upon the colour of their eyes. The
experiment was conducted to eliminate the problem of racism prevalent during that time in
America. When a person or group is discriminated that group does not discriminate others.
Jane Elliot, a primary school teacher, prepared the exercise while teaching a class of
students who were eight years of age. While teaching the students, one of the students asked her
about the death of the Dr. Martin Luther King. The teacher was thinking about the way to
explain the event to her students and ended up preparing the exercise. She divided the students
into two groups – the blue eyed and the brown eyed. She told the students that the blue eyed
people are not as good as the brown eyed people. In order to provide a scientific explanation to
the students she stated that the brown eyed people had more melanin which makes them smarter
and more hard-working.
The blue eyed students were separated from the other students and were given extra time
as their recess. Every one of them gave their own explanations. When the blue eyed students
were asked to consume their drinks using paper cups the other students opposed against them
and stereotyped that the former would be infecting the whole class. The group of students having
brown eyes decided to bully the other group. It was found that the blue eyed students were
banned by the brown eyed students and they also changed individually. The blue eyed students
forgot all the skills they possessed and the brown eyed students were found to be of very
dominative in nature. Elliot reversed the experiment the very next day in order to eliminate