what was the clark doll test

Full Answer

What was the purpose of the Clarks' doll test?

Back in the 1950s, the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, used the Clarks’ doll test research as evidence for the need to desegregate schools. Yet in my own doll test study, more than half a century later in an integrated setting, I found the same anti-Black bias was still there.

What is the doll test and who created it?

In 2010, CNN hired a child psychologist and professor, Margaret Beale Spencer to design a pilot study based on the original Doll Test. The study, which included both white and black children, revealed the very different attitudes that these children have towards race.

What is the doll test and why is it bad?

The Doll Test itself, however, was not without criticism. Most importantly, and unexplained at the time, the study showed that children from the integrated (mixed) schools were more likely to evaluate the brown dolls negatively. As we will soon see, the order of the questions matters too.

What made the Clark experiment even more controversial?

This made the experiment even more controversial. It marked the beginning of the end of Jim Crow. In the experiment, Clark showed black children with ages ranging from 6 to 9, two dolls, one white and the other black, and were asked the following questions in order: Show me the doll that you like best or that you would like to play with.

What is the Clark doll test?

Why is the Clark doll test important?

Why did Clark's study prove segregation?

What was the purpose of the Brown v Board of Education experiment?

Who conducted the Clark Doll test?

Do black kids play with white dolls?

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What was the significance of the Clark doll study?

This 1947 photograph (by Gordon Parks, for Ebony Magazine) may look simply like a child being observed at play, but, in fact, it reveals an experiment that helped lead to the Supreme Court's monumental decision in Brown v. Board of Education, demanding the racial integration of American public schools.

What was the outcome of the doll test?

The results of the test showed that the majority of black children preferred the white dolls to the black dolls, the children saying the black dolls were "bad" and that the white dolls looked most like them.

How did the doll experiment contribute to the civil rights movement?

Their experiment suggested that, due to segregation, African American children preferred white dolls, attributed more positive characteristics to white dolls, and felt inferior.

Why was the doll study significant during the civil rights movement?

The doll study was one of the first psychological research findings that influenced policy on a grand scale and allowed a place for psychological research as a legitimate science that could inspire and influence public policy and national discourse in the United States.

What is the Clark doll test?

The Clark Doll Test illustrates the ill effects of stereotyping and racial segregation in America. It illustrated the damage caused by systematic segregation and racism on children's self-perception at the young age of five.

Why is the Clark doll test important?

The Clark Doll Test is well known due to its social relevance and impact although some say that the results lack experimental weight. It found contrasts among children attending segregated schools in Washington, DC versus those in integrated schools in New York.

Why did Clark's study prove segregation?

The results of Clark's study were used to prove that school segregation was distorting the minds of young black kids, causing them to internalize stereotypes and racism, to the point of making them hate themselves. The Clark Doll Test is well known due to its social relevance and impact although some say that the results lack experimental weight. ...

What was the purpose of the Brown v Board of Education experiment?

In 1954 in Brown v Board of Education, the experiment helped to persuade the American Supreme Court that "separate but equal" schools for blacks and whites were anything but equal in practice and is therefore illegal or against the law. This made the experiment even more controversial.

Who conducted the Clark Doll test?

The Clark Doll test was conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark for her master's degree thesis. The study focused on stereotypes and children's self-perception in relation to their race. The results of Clark's study were used to prove that school segregation was distorting the minds of young black kids, ...

Do black kids play with white dolls?

Results. The researchers found that black children often chose to play with the white dolls more than the black ones. When the kids were asked to fill in a human figure with the color of their own skin, they frequently chose a lighter shade than their actual skin color.

What color is the diaper on the Clarks doll?

The original diaper was gone and the face now had a green tint after years of being exposed to sunlight. Park staff researched the story about the doll's journey and then conducted a close examination of the doll comparing it to photographs of those used by the Clarks.

What is the role of baby dolls in the Supreme Court?

Yet a humble set of baby dolls – two black, two white – played a pivotal role in what many have termed the most important legal ruling of the 20th century.

What dolls were used in Brown v. Board of Education?

Kenneth and Mamie Clark Doll. This doll was one of four dolls, two black and two white, used in the experiment conducted by Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark that would later be used in Brown v. Board of Education. Children's toys rarely feature in decisions issued by the US Supreme Court of the United States.

Why did the NAACP use the Clarks doll test?

Back in the 1950s, the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, used the Clarks’ doll test research as evidence for the need to desegregate schools. Yet in my own doll test study, more than half a century later in an integrated setting, I found the same anti-Black bias was still there.

What did the Clarks study?

In their doll test studies, the Clarks prompted young children to respond to questions of character. They would ask questions like, which doll – the Black one or the white one – was the nice doll? This required the children to select a doll to answer the question. This experiment – and prior research by the Clarks – showed that young children notice race and that they have racial preferences.

What did the Clarks conclude about black children?

The Clarks concluded that Black children – as a result of living in a racist society – had come to see themselves in a negative light. Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark in 1945. Washington Area Spark/flickr, CC BY. I first heard about the Clarks’ doll experiment with preschool children during a Black studies class in college in the early 2000s.

What did the Clarks study about segregation?

The Clarks’ research was used in the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education case to advance the cause of integrated schools. Their findings about Black children’s negative view of themselves were attributed to the effects of segregation. But I knew from experience that the preference for whiteness that the Clarks found was not limited to just Black kids in segregated schools in the 20th century. It was affecting Black kids in integrated schools in the 21st century as well.

When did the Clarks find that black kids were still viewing their blackness in a negative light?

But to verify that Black kids were still viewing their Blackness in a negative light the way the Clarks found that they were back in the 1940s, I would have to do so as a researcher. So I set out to get my doctorate in early childhood education and began to look deeper into how children develop racial identities.

Do girls choose black dolls?

The girls rarely chose the Black dolls during play. On the rare occasions that the girls chose the Black dolls, they mistreated them. One time a Black girl put the doll in a pot and pretended to cook the doll. That’s not something the girls did with the dolls that weren’t Black. When it came time to do either of the Black dolls’ hair, ...

Do Latina dolls have straight hair?

While they preferred to style the Latina doll’s straight hair, they were also happy to style the slightly crimped hair of the white doll as well. The children were more likely to step over or even step on the Black dolls to get to other toys. But that didn’t happen with the other dolls.

What is the Clark doll test?

December 1, 2011. The Clark doll tests, a series of experiments regarded since the 1940s as evidence that black children were taught to ascribe negative attributes to their own race, actually reflect media portrayals of black dolls rather than psychological damage, a Harvard professor argued Wednesday.

What did Bernstein say about the Clark doll tests?

Thus, Bernstein said, the choices made by the subjects of the Clark doll tests was not necessarily an indication of black self-hatred. Instead, it was a cultural choice between two different toys—one that was to be loved and one that was to be physically harassed, as exemplified in performance and popular media.

What did Bernstein find about black dolls?

Bernstein studied the history of black dolls and found that they were often featured in theatrical scenes of servitude and comic violence.

Why did the NAACP use the Clarks doll test?

Back in the 1950s, the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, used the Clarks’ doll test research as evidence for the need to desegregate schools. Yet in my own doll test study, more than half a century later in an integrated setting, I found the same anti-Black bias was still there.

What did the Clarks study?

In their doll test studies, the Clarks prompted young children to respond to questions of character. They would ask questions like, which doll – the Black one or the white one – was the nice doll? This required the children to select a doll to answer the question. This experiment – and prior research by the Clarks – showed that young children notice race and that they have racial preferences.

When did the Clarks find that black kids were still viewing their blackness in a negative light?

But to verify that Black kids were still viewing their Blackness in a negative light the way the Clarks found that they were back in the 1940s, I would have to do so as a researcher. So I set out to get my doctorate in early childhood education and began to look deeper into how children develop racial identities.

What was the Clarks' research?

The Clarks’ research was used in the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education case to advance the cause of integrated schools. Their findings about Black children’s negative view of themselves were attributed to the effects of segregation.

Did girls choose black dolls?

The girls rarely chose the Black dolls during play. On the rare occasions that the girls chose the Black dolls, they mistreated them. One time a Black girl put the doll in a pot and pretended to cook the doll. That’s not something the girls did with the dolls that weren’t Black. See also.

Do Latina dolls have straight hair?

But they did the hair for the dolls of other ethnicities. While they preferred to style the Latina do ll’s straight hair, they were also happy to style the slightly crimped hair of the white doll as well. The children were more likely to step over or even step on the Black dolls to get to other toys.

Civil Rights Act

The study gained spotlight when in 1954, The U.S. Supreme Court cited it as one of the factors determining its deliberation of the Brown v. Board of Education case. This case saw the unanimous ruling of racial segregation in public schools.

The 21st Century Doll Test

Since the publication of the original test, many have been curious enough to confirm the results for themselves. In 2010, CNN hired a child psychologist and professor, Margaret Beale Spencer to design a pilot study based on the original Doll Test.

What is the Clark doll test?

The Clark Doll Test illustrates the ill effects of stereotyping and racial segregation in America. It illustrated the damage caused by systematic segregation and racism on children's self-perception at the young age of five.

Why is the Clark doll test important?

The Clark Doll Test is well known due to its social relevance and impact although some say that the results lack experimental weight. It found contrasts among children attending segregated schools in Washington, DC versus those in integrated schools in New York.

Why did Clark's study prove segregation?

The results of Clark's study were used to prove that school segregation was distorting the minds of young black kids, causing them to internalize stereotypes and racism, to the point of making them hate themselves. The Clark Doll Test is well known due to its social relevance and impact although some say that the results lack experimental weight. ...

What was the purpose of the Brown v Board of Education experiment?

In 1954 in Brown v Board of Education, the experiment helped to persuade the American Supreme Court that "separate but equal" schools for blacks and whites were anything but equal in practice and is therefore illegal or against the law. This made the experiment even more controversial.

Who conducted the Clark Doll test?

The Clark Doll test was conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark for her master's degree thesis. The study focused on stereotypes and children's self-perception in relation to their race. The results of Clark's study were used to prove that school segregation was distorting the minds of young black kids, ...

Do black kids play with white dolls?

Results. The researchers found that black children often chose to play with the white dolls more than the black ones. When the kids were asked to fill in a human figure with the color of their own skin, they frequently chose a lighter shade than their actual skin color.

Experiment Background

• The Clark Doll test was conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark for her master's degree thesis. The study focused on stereotypes and children's self-perception in relation to their race. The results of Clark's study were used to prove that school segregation was distorting the minds of young black kids, causing them to internalize s...

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Methodology

Results

Criticisms of The Study