Written by YMPowe
From the moment that an individual enters the world, his or her thoughts are available for conditioning. We first experience conditioning through our family relations, cultures, values, and behaviors. David Goleman (2006) explains with his theory on emotional intelligence (EI), that “the shaping of the brain through repeated experiences plays a key role in [emotional intelligence]”[1]. Aronson, Wilson, and Akert (2005), define the shaping of the brain as phenomenological mental conditioning[2].
Mental conditioning is not complicated in practice, and has its greatest effect when the perpetrator of the mental conditioning has been certified as trustworthy. For example, as Pavlov’s dog trusted him, the students in Jane Elliot’s third grade class trusted her.
Jane Elliot’s infamous 1968 class divided brown eyes/blue eyes social experiment was conducted on her third grade class. Elliot’s third grade class was populated by all White students who she engaged in an experiment of social and physical discrimination. Elliot’s experiment revealed the ease that a person of authority can manipulate and mentally condition the minds of children[3].
In brief, the experiment involved, Elliot, who had blue eyes, informed her class that individuals with brown eyes were superior to all others. Biases amongst the children began quickly. Elliot noticed that students with brown eyes body language change. They became more confident and supportive of each. She also noticed that they became less supportive of those with blue eyes. She noted that some children with brown eyes began to congregate together and disassociated with those with blue eyes.
Elliot noticed a significant behavioral change in the children with blue eyes. Their body language change as well. Children with blue eyes appeared to be less assured of their voices, intelligence and purpose. Some blue-eyed students showed admiration and desire for brown eyes. On the playground many of the blue-eyed children also comingled. Elliot noted the aggression in language between the two groups. She noted the use in language of one to disparage the other, uplift their group’s superiority, and defend their group’s inferiority. Some children also stated that difference did not matter amongst their friends.
The next day Elliot informed the students in her third grade class that blue eyes were superior to all others. Elliot noted the reversal in behavior amongst the children. The children with blue eyes behaved as superior and the children with brown eyes behaved as oppressed. Confusion based stress was evident in both groups. What does it mean to be designated as better than all others? What does it mean to be Other than better?
Elliott reproduced the same experiment on adult employees at a department of correction. The outcome of the experiment yielded the same results as her experiment on her third grade class6. Elliot exposed the ease that an authoritative entity can condition behavior towards prescribed differences. Elliot revealed the fraud of privilege and coveting of privilege. Whether a child or an adult, an individual’s position in an institution under administrative control of another can be educated to believe whatever the designated authority prescribes as true.
