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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----- 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"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences"
< 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 > > > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as:
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- RE: Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - Program Evaluation Jean-Marc Perreault
- Re: Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - Program Evaluation Scott Lilienfeld
