Sheriff Robbers cave experiment study of prejudice

Question 1

what was the aim?

Answer 1

• To study the origins of prejudice in a group of school boys by artificially creating in-groups.
• Then to reduce prejudice created by introducing tasks that required cooperation

Question 2

What are the 3 phases?

Answer 2

• in-group formation
• the friction phase
• the integration phase

Question 3

What was the sample?

Answer 3

• 22 eleven year old boys from middle class backgrounds

- Not school or social failures and had similar education levels

Question 4

Where is robbers cave?

Answer 4

Oklahoma

Question 5

how many groups were the boys split into?

Answer 5

2

Question 6

Why did the groups not know of the others existence in the first week?

Answer 6

So they would spend time boding within their in-groups while hiking and swimming.

Question 7

what were the 2 groups called that was stenciled onto shirts and flags?

Answer 7

• Eagles

- Rattlers

Question 8

in what phase did the groups first find out the existence of the other?

Answer 8

The friction phase

Question 9

what was the aim of the friction phase?

Answer 9

the production of conflict through a serious of competitive activities such as tournament events with a reward for the winning group

Question 10

Who won the overall trophy in the friction phase?

Answer 10

the rattlers

Question 11

What happened when the rattlers one the trophy?

Answer 11

Name calling started and singing of offensive songs began

Question 12

what was the aim of the integration phase?

Answer 12

To lessen friction and promote unity between the groups.

Question 13

what were the cooperation tasks called?

Answer 13

super-ordinate goals

Question 14

what is a super-ordinate goal?

Answer 14

A desire that both parties in conflict need to resolve but neither can resolve alone.

Question 15

what challenges did sherif set up to achieve the super-ordinate goals?

Answer 15

• A water shortage problem
• A broken down camp truck that needed to be pushed back to camp
• Finding a movie to show

Question 16

What were the results in phase 1?

Answer 16

Choosing a group name allowed members to identify with others in their group giving them a sense of belonging

Question 17

What were the results in phase 2?

Answer 17

• Hostility was observed in the first day of groups contact

- hostility escalated to a point where the friction producing activities had to be stopped as it was no longer safe

Question 18

What were the results in phase 3?

Answer 18

• The super-ordinate goals caused prejudice to subside and a new in group was created with all of the boys.
• By the end of the experiment the boys insisted on all riding back together on the same bus

Question 19

What did sherif conclude?

Answer 19

The experiment showed how easily opposing in-groups and hostility can form and it also showed how conflict resolution can be brought about by setting super-ordinate goals to stop conflict.