A Classroom Divided-A PBS FilmIn this documentary, Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher divided her class into two groups based on the color of their eyes. ; one group had blue eyes and the other had brown eyes. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the blue-eyed children that they were superior to the brown-eyed children; that they were better, kinder and smarter. Throughout the day, she praised and encouraged them and granted them various privileges, such as being on the front lines and having extended playtime. The brown-eyed children were forced to wear collars, in order to identify them as belonging to the lower group, and they were criticized and told that they had to be separated from the blue-eyed group during recess. On the second day, the superiority was reversed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay Illusory correlation refers to when people see a relationship between two variables, even if there is none. not. This happened several times throughout this documentary. On the first day, when the blue-eyed group outperformed the brown-eyed group, Elliott and the students established illusory correlations between the brown-eyed people and different variables. For example, Elliott made a connection between being slow, referring to being ready to start the lesson, and having brown eyes. More of these correlations were made between people with blue eyes when they were lower. The top group, brown eyes, correlated having blue eyes with being forgetful, violent, and wasteful. Social identity theory is a concept based on the assumption that people strive to improve their self-image by trying to boost their self-esteem based on their personal or social identity. This theory held true throughout the experiment. An example of social identity theory is when children were taking recess; one of the blue-eyed boys in the group tried to improve his self-esteem by calling one of his classmates an offensive name; 'brown eyes.' Stereotype threat is the effect of stereotypes on an individual's performance. The experiment showed the different effects of stereotypes on children's performances depending on the status of their group; whether they were higher or lower. In a phonics cards exercise we can see the effect that stereotypes have on children's performance. On the first day, it took the brown-eyed people 5 and a half minutes to look through the cards. On the second day, however, they were able to complete the same cards in a fraction of the time, it only took them 2 and a half minutes. This improvement is based solely on the stereotype change. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a personalized essay. In-group and out-group favoritism involves an “us versus them” mentality that is clearly displayed throughout the experience. Elliott, for example, demonstrated group favoritism when she chose blue-eyed children as her superior group, simply because she had blue eyes herself. Whichever group was higher had both of these terms. Regardless of which group was superior, they perceived their group as good and intelligent while they thought the out-group was bad and unintelligent..