JON HELLER - POSTED THIS in response to our CLASS Discussion YESTERDAY (4:30) concerning Human Condition and Behavior in connection with PREJUDICE AND CULTURE

So, after doing a bit of research on the topic, I found two links that helped explain a bit about "Little Albert" and the white rat experiment. (I had originally thought it was a rabbit, but it was a rat)

The basic premise was that the experimenter, John B. Watson, believed he could condition humans in the same manner that Ivan Pavlov had done with dogs. Pavlov had an interesting experiment as well and if you want to look that up you can probably google "Pavlov's Dogs."

Here is the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment

And here is the psychology.about.com article: http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/little-albert-experiment.htm

Having discussed this topic in one of my social sciences classes and reading over the articles myself, this topic was immediately brought to my mind during class for a few reasons but one important reason. In the same way that "Albert" was conditioned to become fearful when presented with a white rat, and later on anything colored white, do humans contain the ability to condition their children to learn prejudices of other cultures?

We may not be as blatant and focused as Watson was, but anyone who is near a child should remember the fact that a young person's mind functions on a simplistic level. The following sentences are my opinion, not fact, on my best analogy of how I *think* a child's brain functions. In my eyes, a very young person has a mind like that of a dog. A dog does not understand words but we can still teach them tricks, "bad" things, and where to go to the bathroom. This is done by tone association and physical movements/actions. If a dog does something wrong, you scold them and maybe hit them on the butt, if they do something right you gain a light tone (almost "cutesy") and either pet them and/or give them a treat. In the same way, babies learn right and wrong through our actions.

We don't know what our actions will imprint upon a child, and if we do the same thing enough we may permanently give them the concept of correct or incorrect inadvertently. My theory goes from here into the daily life of a person. When an adult sees a person they do not like, maybe because of his/her race or actions they have done, they can sense this angst. Present this reaction enough, a young child learns to hate that particular race (or characteristics similar to that person). All of our actions can affect the development of a child's mind. This is where "bred" prejudice is brought into play. Learn to hate enough when you don't know the difference between right and wrong and when you become more aware of the world, this hatred enters your subconscious.