Speaking of summer camps, I believe that many people have been arranged by their parents or schools to participate in them in childhood, or experienced them under the arrangements of the company after adulthood.
This kind of cultural activity allows participants to learn and play in a variety of preset projects, which has a certain educational and motivating significance.
However, 60 years ago in the United States, someone used this so-called summer camp to do a study, which later not only inspired a classic work of allegorical novels, but also caused many researchers to discuss various theories included.
This experiment is called the "Robes Cave Experiment," and this experiment, everything stems from a man trying to prove his own vision, Muzaf.
in Muzaf
Muzzafu is the founder of modern psychology, social psychology, and his lifelong contribution to modern psychology can be described as indelible.
Born in the Ottoman Empire and at a young age he went to Harvard University to study psychology, and he soon realized that laboratory research on mice was too limited, and he wanted a more complex subject: humans.
For those who study psychology, human beings themselves are always the most valuable research and the most voyeuristic objects. The same was true for Muzaf, so in 1954 he planned to conduct an unprecedented experiment on humans at Robes Cave State Park in Oklahoma.
(Present-day Robes Cave State Park)
He first selected 24 children from 24 different schools in Oklahoma with middle-class backgrounds and ages 11 to 12.
He then divided the 24 men into two groups and arranged them to assemble at different locations in the park, unaware of each other's existence. And all children and their parents were told that the camp was supervised by personnel, so that safety and concerns of parents could be kept safe.
What the children didn't know when they were free to explore the environment around their camp was that the so-called personnel supervision was arranged by Muzaffe to record various data and children's behavior. Children have unconsciously become the object of experiments.
(One of the groups overlooks the cliffs near the camp)
The first phase of the experiment also began as the children entered the park. Just as the two groups were unaware of each other's existence at the beginning, they each had a wooden house as a base, with nearby pools of streams and demarcated camping areas that would have enough space for basic camp activities that would constitute their daily lives.
(Map of the camp where the experiment was located)
As a result, members of each group are free to explore and play the area around their camp. They gradually establish a connection with the people in their group through various camping activities such as hiking and swimming, from unfamiliar relationships.
This linkage began to allow internal personnel to perform their duties in subsequent activities, making them more smooth.
(One of the children is dividing bread)
The respective groups have since established their own group names, one group is "Rattlesnake" and the other group is "Eagle", and the names are engraved on their respective flags and shirts, giving members a sense of belonging and team spirit.
A week later, when a strong relationship was established between the two groups, Muzaffe began the second phase of the experiment, in which he and the research team had the two groups meet and then create what is called "friction."
By having the two groups briefly introduce each other, Muzaf then set up a series of intense confrontation activities such as tug-of-war games, baseball games, etc.
The winning side of the game can not only get prizes, but also trophies and other things that can be "shown off", but the losing side will not even have the so-called consolation prize, which will begin to cause a distinction between the two sides.
(One of the groups holds a prize)
The role of this phase is to significantly increase the confrontation and conflict between the two groups. When the Diamondbacks won the baseball game, they made a flag mocking the Eagles and stood it inside the baseball field, declaring that it would be their victory and that the Eagles would not be allowed to enter.
The conflict began to intensify, and when the two groups met in the canteen, both sides gave each other some ugly names, and later even refused to eat in the same room.
As relations deteriorated rapidly, verbal provocations turned into physical actions. The Eagles burned the Flag of the Rattlesnakes, and after the Eagles defeated the Rattlesnakes, the Rattles found an opportunity to launch a "raid" on the Eagles, infiltrating the Eagles' base to steal the prizes and trophies, and destroying the interior of the base.
In fact, some children have used socks to pack "weapons" formed of rubble to prevent sneak attacks, and the competition between the two groups has changed from a taste of fighting, and the situation has become more and more out of control.
(Two groups of people in an increasingly tense atmosphere)
At first Muzaf tried to get the two groups to see if they could repair the contradictions between the two sides over time through equal contact, and even designed an outing for both sides; watching movies; and a plan to dine together, but both groups refused to participate.
The experiment entered its third phase, and Muzaf felt it was time to prove his theory. He deliberately created problems that all members would have to work on together to solve: the first was water.
He shut down the tap water supply that supplied the two groups, and then told all the children that because the water supply system was down, they needed everyone to go together to find four different locations in the area that connected the camp and the reservoir to find out where the failure was.
(Muzaffe observing at the camp)
At first, neither group agreed to cooperate, but as the water problem became more and more tense, the children began to abandon their earlier prejudices against each other, willing to take care of each other's frail people, and cooperate to eliminate the trouble points.
When they found that the water tanks were full of water in the north of the camp, but the valves were covered by a pile of rocks, so the two groups began to move the rocks, from the two groups of people at first with a clear division of labor, and then later formed a faster carrying chain, becoming a team, and the earlier clear boundaries between the two sides began to blur.
But when the problem was solved, the next morning the two groups of people threw food at each other again in the cafeteria because of the quarrel. Muzaf once again devised a task to see if he could consolidate the newly established bond between them.
He arranged a chance to see the movie "Treasure Island", but the truck to the cinema broke down and needed to find new accessories from different places to start. At the same time, due to the time relationship, the two sides will miss the opportunity to watch movies if they do not cooperate.
So the two groups quickly united, not only restarting the truck, but also collecting a variety of snacks that the staff had buried in advance and could eat while watching a movie. At the end of the trip, the Sidewinders used even the $5 they won in a single game to buy malt milk for all members of both groups.
(Kids in the truck)
Eventually, on the final day of camp, both groups agreed to travel back to Oklahoma on the same bus.
From this experiment, Muzaf observed several results: First: When individuals interact in similar situations and events, a clear group structure and dynamic consisting of individual status and role is formed.
The second is that in the stage of friction, uneasy conflicts create unfavorable impressions with external groups and their members, leaving groups at a certain social distance.
The third is that if some conflicting groups come together and have a common superior goal that cannot be achieved by the efforts of one group alone, then these groups will be inclined to cooperate to achieve the superior goal.
(Children in the same room)
Muzaf's experiment was set up to confirm his own theory of the conflict of reality. That is, this experiment simulates various conflicts that plague people around the world, and the simplest explanation for this conflict is competition.
When people compete for scarce resources (e.g. jobs, land, etc.), hostility between groups increases, which leads to conflict. For example, even if immigrants do not deprive local workers of job opportunities, they only perceive that they may steal their jobs, leading to conflict and prejudice against their group.
Although the study was a field trial, it meant it had high socio-ecological validity.
(24 children in the "Robes Cave Experiment")
Although many experts later expressed their opposition to Muzaf's experiment, because the whole experiment was artificial, and there were also interventions in it, which did not necessarily reflect real life.
The second is that all participants were unaware that they had participated in the experiment, and that all the boys were from middle-class families, excluding girls and adults, so the results could not be generalized.
But it must be said that in the same year, "Lord of the Flies" was born, a classic in contemporary English fiction that describes how a group of children stranded on a desert island built a fragile civilization system without the guidance of a completely adult. Eventually, due to the dark side of the human heart, this civilization system was inevitably replaced by barbarism and violence, and the theme was the allegorical novel of controversial human nature, the conflict between individual rights and collective interests.
(The Lord of the Flies)
Regardless of the final outcome, the Robes Cave Experiment has left a certain legacy for modern social psychology.
Because this experiment more or less emphasized the human nature that competed with each other under the condition of limited resources, the change of human nature under the common goal, and the impact on the lives of the participants.
As one of the children in the experiment that year, Doug Griesset, said when he faced the camera in 2019: "I wasn't traumatized by the experiment, but I didn't like lakes, camps, cabins or tents." ”
(Doug Griesett and wife)