The experiment of ‘A Class Divided’ is a lesson taught by Jane Elliot about discrimination and how it feels to be discriminated against. She first conducted this experiment in 1968 with her class of third graders, she divides people by eye colour and provides collars for them, and she then makes a group of rules separating them and observes how they’re discriminated against in a controlled environment.
The experiment breached many ethical guidelines, this is because the experiment wouldn’t have worked otherwise. The rights of the participants was breached in order to achieve accurate results and so that people would feel the humiliation and cage of discrimination. It is unknown if confidentiality was breached because it is uncertain as to whether or not a waiver was signed by the participants. In the case of the students, voluntary participation was not breached because the students decided beforehand that they wanted to participate in the experiment. However, with the prison guards, they were told that they simply were to attend a mandatory workshop, therefore not voluntary. Withdrawal rights was breached because in both cases because they weren’t allowed to leave the experiment before it was over. However while the children were informed about
…show more content…
However with the guards, she was more interested in creating empathy than the actual ethics of the experiment. Which was morally incorrect, because only so much can be done to build empathy and most empathetic people will be taught empathy at an early age so it becomes part of who they are. However, there was very little reason for it to be conducted with the guards in the first place and raises the question of when should it stop? To abide by the guidelines, Jane should’ve let the participants know that it was an experiment and that they were welcome to leave at any