Jean-Marc Perreault
2006-03-08 21:21:47 UTC
I just finished reading the following, recommended by Scott:
Stewart, T. L., La Duke, J. R., Bracht, C., Sweet, B. A. M., & Gamarel, K.
E. (2003). Do the "eyes" have it? A program evaluation of Jane Elliott's
"blue eyes/brown eyes" diversity training exercise. Journal of Applied
Social Psychology, 33, 1898-1921.
Very interesting. But there are many issues with the evaluation.
For one, Jane Elliott herself put conditions on the research team. Such
conditions included: No pretest posttest, "because Elliott agreed to the
assessment of her exercise only under the condition that no pretest or
postest measures be implemented" (p.1902);
Post-test evaluation to be done only six weeks after the actual workshop
session, "The assessment sessions originally were scheduled to be conducted
during the 2 weeks immediately following the exercise, a plan that had been
approved by Elliott several months prior to the exercise. However, on the
evening prior to the exercise, Elliott previewed some of the assessment
measures and expressed second thoughts about allowing her activity to be
assessed empirically. She stated that she was particularly concerned that
participating in the assessment might influence participant' behaviour
during the follow-up discussion session scheduled to be held 4 weeks after
the activity. It was agreed, therefore, to delay the assessment until after
the follow-up discussion session [6 weeks after the exercise]" (p.1906).
The authors also included questions to the participants regarding their
levels of discomfort during the exercise, and whether they were glad they
had participated in the exercise or not. Overall, most said they were glad
they had, but the discriminated upon group was not willing to recommend the
activity to their friends as the non-victimized group. Could the overall
positive rating of the exercise be due to cognitive dissonance rather than
to effectiveness? The authors throw the question in.
I find it unfortunate that Mrs. Elliott felt the need to intrude in the
design of the experiment. It certainly does not inspire confidence,
especially when she asks for 10,000$ for training in her method.
Cheers!
JM
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Lilienfeld [mailto:***@emory.edu]
Sent: February 27, 2006 5:37 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences
Subject: Re: Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment - Lucrative Market
Jean: See:
Stewart, T. L., La Duke, J. R., Bracht, C., Sweet, B. A. M., & Gamarel, K.
E. (2003). Do the "eyes" have it? A program evaluation of Jane Elliott's
"blue eyes/brown eyes" diversity training exercise. Journal of Applied
Social Psychology, 33, 1898-1921.
To my knowledge, this is about the only (admittedly preliminary)
research to examine the efficacy of this exercise. ....Scott
----- Original Message -----
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To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <***@acsun.frostburg.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 12:26 AM
Subject: Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment - Lucrative Market
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Stewart, T. L., La Duke, J. R., Bracht, C., Sweet, B. A. M., & Gamarel, K.
E. (2003). Do the "eyes" have it? A program evaluation of Jane Elliott's
"blue eyes/brown eyes" diversity training exercise. Journal of Applied
Social Psychology, 33, 1898-1921.
Very interesting. But there are many issues with the evaluation.
For one, Jane Elliott herself put conditions on the research team. Such
conditions included: No pretest posttest, "because Elliott agreed to the
assessment of her exercise only under the condition that no pretest or
postest measures be implemented" (p.1902);
Post-test evaluation to be done only six weeks after the actual workshop
session, "The assessment sessions originally were scheduled to be conducted
during the 2 weeks immediately following the exercise, a plan that had been
approved by Elliott several months prior to the exercise. However, on the
evening prior to the exercise, Elliott previewed some of the assessment
measures and expressed second thoughts about allowing her activity to be
assessed empirically. She stated that she was particularly concerned that
participating in the assessment might influence participant' behaviour
during the follow-up discussion session scheduled to be held 4 weeks after
the activity. It was agreed, therefore, to delay the assessment until after
the follow-up discussion session [6 weeks after the exercise]" (p.1906).
The authors also included questions to the participants regarding their
levels of discomfort during the exercise, and whether they were glad they
had participated in the exercise or not. Overall, most said they were glad
they had, but the discriminated upon group was not willing to recommend the
activity to their friends as the non-victimized group. Could the overall
positive rating of the exercise be due to cognitive dissonance rather than
to effectiveness? The authors throw the question in.
I find it unfortunate that Mrs. Elliott felt the need to intrude in the
design of the experiment. It certainly does not inspire confidence,
especially when she asks for 10,000$ for training in her method.
Cheers!
JM
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Lilienfeld [mailto:***@emory.edu]
Sent: February 27, 2006 5:37 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences
Subject: Re: Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment - Lucrative Market
Jean: See:
Stewart, T. L., La Duke, J. R., Bracht, C., Sweet, B. A. M., & Gamarel, K.
E. (2003). Do the "eyes" have it? A program evaluation of Jane Elliott's
"blue eyes/brown eyes" diversity training exercise. Journal of Applied
Social Psychology, 33, 1898-1921.
To my knowledge, this is about the only (admittedly preliminary)
research to examine the efficacy of this exercise. ....Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean-Marc Perreault" <***@northwestel.net>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <***@acsun.frostburg.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 12:26 AM
Subject: Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment - Lucrative Market
Greetings everyone,
I was speaking with a colleague recently who mentioned
she
had attended a workshop given by Jane Elliott (made famous through her
ingenuous blue eyes brown eyes experiment). She said (my colleague) the
workshop was aimed at making "white people" understand what it is like to
be
the victim of racism. Within a few hours only, these individuals are
apparently brought to experience discrimination, and made aware of their
own
biases. Basically, Mrs. Elliott uses the same type of setting as in her
initial experiment. She classifies individuals by eye colour, and has the
main group (brown eyes) discriminate against the blue eyes (or something
like that). It gets quite intense, and this brings people to some form of
insight about racism and hidden biases.
My colleague also mentioned she was thinking of attending a "train the
trainers" workshop to be able to lead such workshops herself. This
triggered
my curiosity, and so I contacted Jane Elliott to inquire about such
courses.
She kindly replied that she was going to offer one this coming summer, and
that for the 10-day course, the fee was 10,000$ US. Ouch! I did not expect
such a fee!
I may have considered such a workshop, if only for the sake of meeting Mrs
Elliott and making my own impression about such a way of leading
workshops.
I have my own reservations with regards to the ethics of putting the
groups
through such intense pressure. But for 10,000$, well, what can I say other
that I am unlikely to ever meet her in such a context!
My question to you all is whether you are aware of any research that may
have been done on the efficacy of such an approach to change attitudes,
especially with regards to racism. If such an approach has been
demonstrated
to be efficacious, (and ethical) then it may be worth the cost. But if it
is
not backed by any solid evidence, well... I am interested because up here
in
the North, we have a lot of systemic racism going on. It would be nice to
have something that is both easy to market, and worth everybody's time.
So let loose on your keyboards and let me know your thoughts. I've always
liked the basic Blue eyes brown eyes experiment. I now need to look at it
more closely.
Cheers all!
Jean-Marc
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To unsubscribe send a blank email to
---I was speaking with a colleague recently who mentioned
she
had attended a workshop given by Jane Elliott (made famous through her
ingenuous blue eyes brown eyes experiment). She said (my colleague) the
workshop was aimed at making "white people" understand what it is like to
be
the victim of racism. Within a few hours only, these individuals are
apparently brought to experience discrimination, and made aware of their
own
biases. Basically, Mrs. Elliott uses the same type of setting as in her
initial experiment. She classifies individuals by eye colour, and has the
main group (brown eyes) discriminate against the blue eyes (or something
like that). It gets quite intense, and this brings people to some form of
insight about racism and hidden biases.
My colleague also mentioned she was thinking of attending a "train the
trainers" workshop to be able to lead such workshops herself. This
triggered
my curiosity, and so I contacted Jane Elliott to inquire about such
courses.
She kindly replied that she was going to offer one this coming summer, and
that for the 10-day course, the fee was 10,000$ US. Ouch! I did not expect
such a fee!
I may have considered such a workshop, if only for the sake of meeting Mrs
Elliott and making my own impression about such a way of leading
workshops.
I have my own reservations with regards to the ethics of putting the
groups
through such intense pressure. But for 10,000$, well, what can I say other
that I am unlikely to ever meet her in such a context!
My question to you all is whether you are aware of any research that may
have been done on the efficacy of such an approach to change attitudes,
especially with regards to racism. If such an approach has been
demonstrated
to be efficacious, (and ethical) then it may be worth the cost. But if it
is
not backed by any solid evidence, well... I am interested because up here
in
the North, we have a lot of systemic racism going on. It would be nice to
have something that is both easy to market, and worth everybody's time.
So let loose on your keyboards and let me know your thoughts. I've always
liked the basic Blue eyes brown eyes experiment. I now need to look at it
more closely.
Cheers all!
Jean-Marc
---
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