Applications To Racism
According to one often-cited but controversial non-scientific study of Jane Elliott, the Pygmalion effect can play a role in racial expectations and behavior. Elliott was an American teacher and anti-racism activist who devised an exercise to determine the effects of expectation and discrimination upon children, using differences in eye color to distinguish between perceptions and expectations of "inferior" and "superior". In this exercise, one group was given preference and regarded as "superior" because of their eye color, with the other group intentionally associated with inferiority in intelligence and learning ability. On the second day of the experiment, the groups were completely reversed, with those previously considered inferior one day being regarded as superior the next.
Elliott gave spelling tests to both groups on each day of the experiment. The students scored very low on the day they were racially "inferior" and very high on the day they were considered racially "superior."
Read more about this topic: Pygmalion Effect
Famous quotes containing the word racism:
“I don’t think America’s the center of the world anymore. I think African women will lead the way [in] ... women’s liberation ... The African woman, she’s got a country, she’s got the flag, she’s got her own army, got the navy. She doesn’t have a racism problem. She’s not afraid that if she speaks up, her man will say goodbye to her.”
—Faith Ringgold (b. 1934)