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Brown Eye Blue Eye Experiment

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Q1. In the experiment titled, “Brown Eyes Blue Eyes,” Elliot tests the boundary of racial discrimination, stereotypes and the undesirable effect it brings to young, intelligent minds. The notion that discriminatory statements can be quickly internalized - to the extent of collapsing strong bonds of friendship - prompts one to question the power of authority and how easy it is for children to be indoctrinated and submit to a certain belief without questioning the basis of it. She uncovers several interesting concepts, all of which will be discussed in the following paragraphs. Based on the experiment, Elliot discovers how quickly pupils regard their classmates - most of whom they have been friends with for the longest time - as enemies, …show more content…

They attributed their inability to perform well in mathematics and reading tasks to the collars that they were wearing, citing that ‘when they were at the bottom, everything bad happened to them’. This can be explained through Cooley’s concept of the “looking glass self”. According to Cooley (1902), the “looking-glass self” refers to people shaping their self-concepts based on their understandings of how others perceived them. As a result, people grow according to their interpersonal interactions with society and society’s perceptions of them. Society’s perceptions on the brown-eyed pupils, on ‘being the bottom’, had undoubtedly planted a belief in their heads that they were not as intelligent and capable as their blue-eyed counterparts. Cooley also mentions that other people are the mirror where we see ourselves. By negotiating with people outside, we gain affirmation of our identity and have a fuller sense of who we are. In the video, when Elliot implied that Lorrie do things quickly (“Ready, Lorrie?”), a blue-eyed pupil said matter-of-factly, “Well, she’s a brown-eyed,” attributing Lorrie’s slowness to her physical

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