The event: How racist are you?

[endless psych]

Did anyone else watch this?

I was slightly dissapointed. Mainly because Jane Elliots work is lauded in nigh on every social psychology textbook you'd care to mention and her methods, as demonstrated in the program didn't seem to me to be all that sound.

I mean was there any evidence it had a lasting impact? Did it improve racial attitudes? Did it do enough to justify the slightly dodgy ethics?

I've blogged a more detailed critique and a potential means of addressing some of those questions (I'm at work and obviously bored out of my skull) but would be interested in anyone elses opinions of the program (it's stll avaliable on 4od if you haven't seen it and it's arguably worth it just to see the uncomfortably short interview at the end).

[Largest of Gregs]

quite

[Mwezzi]

It didn't achieve anything, because the task at hand was almost entirely lost as people asserted that they weren't racist instead.
My initial impression was one of irritation and disappointment. I'm going to watch it again whilst not also doing my homework later.
Nice that people are against racism, I guess.

[endless psych]

If only people had done what this person arbitarily ordered them to they would have learnt an important lesson! Damn them and their sense of agency

The task was inherently flawed to my mind. If the task only works when people are being compliant and complicit with Elliot then there is a huuuge flaw in it's design.

Imagine administering a clinical trial and when no effect greater then placebo was observed blaming the participants and still lauding the drug as working perfectly, that seem reasonably analogous to blaming the folk taking part for it not working to me...

[Mwezzi]

Originally Posted by endless psych

If only people had done what this person arbitarily ordered them to they would have learnt an important lesson! Damn them and their sense of agency

The task was inherently flawed to my mind. If the task only works when people are being compliant and complicit with Elliot then there is a huuuge flaw in it's design.

Imagine administering a clinical trial and when no effect greater then placebo was observed blaming the participants and still lauding the drug as working perfectly, that seem reasonably analogous to blaming the folk taking part for it not working to me...

Elliot is taking on the role of 'apartheid society', which gives roles to people from the get go. The point is to show that anyone can become a monster against ANY CHARACTERISTIC without much effort. Many people are often quite surprised. They know they are being told they are better than the other group - but they don't expect themselves to actually start believing or acting like they are.

Elliot just tells people things like 'blue eyed people are stupid'. She doesn't actually tell the people to go on and pick on the people with blue eyes, the brown-eyed group (in theory) does it of their own volition, without ever having acted like that before.

[endless psych]

I understand the point. I dispute whether the task has any actual worth in changing or addressing peoples prejudices and racism.

Also one of the problems I had with the task was that it didn't address the brown eyed group becoming racist and appeared to be solely about demonising the (exclusively white) blue eyes.

Milgram just told people that the experiment demanded that they continue and they believed they were administering extreme electric shocks to learners solely for their henious crime of mismatching word pairs...

Don't underestimate the power of even the most basic authority figure to exert an influence on others and promote conformity above and beyond their apparent station.

[pANDAS Radio]

I thought the blonde woman, who's husband wearing a suit is comparable to a black man "playing the game", was hilarious. Total fuckin' idiot.

[System_Star]

Yeah the blonde haired SCHOOL TEACHER that said that when a coloured pupil of hers fell and scraped herself she was suprised that the cut was pink. I had to turn it over, my blood was boiling.

[endless psych]

They could have retitiled the whole show - "somewhat racist blonde blue eyed school teacher says ill advised racist things in front of ethnically diverse group and angry American".

Not as catchy as the title they eventually went with mind.

[MarkMono]

Originally Posted by Mwezzi

Nice that people are against racism, I guess.

But they're not, they're against being associated with a term because it is largely stigmatised. Not the same thing as being against racism at all.

[I'm Your God Now]

Shite experiment.

[XMachina]

YouTube - Everyones A Little Bit Racist

[PAPA LAZEROU]

I watched about 5 minutes of this dross.....eventually switched it off to play xbox 360 borderlands.

[Eulonima]

im not racist, i just hate the taigs.

[Timmy]

I don't like the colour brown an any context.