In 1968, Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliot conducted a famous experiment on the children in her class. Mrs. Elliot segregated the brown-eyed children from the blue-eyed children and told the class that the blue-eyed children were superior. The blue-eyed children were given privileges, such as increased recess time and extra food at lunch. The brown-eyed children had to wear brown fabric around their necks so they could be easily identified on the playground. The blue-eyed children began treating the brown-eyed children as inferior almost immediately, taunting them and ordering them around. The next day, the roles were reversed and the class was instructed that the brown-eyed children were superior. The brown-eyed children began behaving accordingly. What does this experiment illustrate?
