Question

In the Little Albert experiment, Watson taught a young child to associate the sight of a white rat with fear. He did this by giving the child a rat, then making a very loud sound near him, which elicited a fear response. Eventually, the sight of any white, fuzzy object (including a coat, a rabbit, and a Santa mask) elicited an immediate fear response (Cherry & Morin, 2019). Do you think this experiment by Watson was ethical? He created a lifelong fear in the child for the purposes of research. If you were going to repeat his experiment, what would you do differently to make it more ethical by today's standards?

Answer 1

The Little Albert experiment was conducted by Watson and Rayner in the 1920s to demonstrate how fear could be conditioned. Albert was an infant who was conditioned to be afraid of rats by associating it with a loud noise (of which he was already fearful). Gradually, this fear generalized to other white furry Objects and Albert would show signs of distress upon encountering any such object. While the Little Albert study showed how fears could be conditioned, it was highly unethical on the following grounds:

• The mere idea of causing distress to an infant was unethical.
• Albert was never de conditioned of his fear. The best way to do this experiment would have been to de condition Albert of his fear. However, the same was not done on Albert.
• It was later discovered that Albert was not a healthy child. He suffered from hydrocephalus since birth. Conducting an experiment on an unhealthy infant was unethical.
• Albert also went on to die as a fairly young child (5-6 year old).
• It was claimed that Watson and Rayner were aware of Albert's cognitive impairments and yet continued to terrorize the child.

In order to make this experiment more ethical, the following considerations could be kept in mind:

• Informed consent and voluntary participation by the child's guardians should be ensured.
• No psychological or physical harm should be inflicted
• The health status of the child should be ensured. The child should not be suffering from any physical or mental impairments.
• The child participating in the experiment should be de conditioned of his fear using various behavioral techniques that are now known. (Systematic desensitization, flooding)