Question

The “Robber’s Cave” experiment is important in social psychology. Tell what happened in the study. Explain the significance of the study.

Answer 1

Sherif wanted to study the dynamics of groups in conflict for limited resources. The Robber's Cave experiment had twenty-two eleven year-old boys of middle-class socioeconomic families as participants.They were taken to Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma for camping and randomly divided into two groups of 11 each.

There were three phases of the experiment

• Ingroup Formation- Each group had seperate accomodation and was unaware of the other grougroup.This was the phase for bonding between the members as they were living together , taking part in activities together. They were asked to name their group, had their own flag and shirts with the group name written on it to increase ingroup identity.
• Phase 2- The 2 groups were made to interact through a series of competitive tasktasks.The friction between the 2 groups increased as there was name calling and fights and a sense of hatred had began to develop for outgroup members.
• Phase 3- The groups were then deliberately given tasks that required cooperation and coordination between them, also called superordinate goals.Their drinking water supply was vandalised and both groups had to work together to restore it. The tension between the groups reduced and they successfully worked together.

The study shows how ingroup and outgroup bias develop and how working together can reduce these biases.

It formed the basis of Sherif's Realistic Conflict Theory.This theory explains how intergroup conflicts increase when there are limited resources and the severity of the conflict is based upon the perceived value and shortage of the given resource.