The Importance Of The Robber's Cave Experiment

The Robber’s Cave Experiment was conducted by a man named Muzafer Sherif. It was an experiment that Sherif introduced in order to help demonstrate his contribution called the realistic conflict theory. The realistic conflict theory is negative prejudice, stereotypes and all around conflict in a group when it comes to competition for desired resources. He believed that the strife between both groups occurred due to the competition for limited resources. This experiment was conducted using two groups of eleven year old boys. The group of twenty-two boys were unaware of each other and came from a white middle-class background. All of them were protestant and had two parents. The boys were randomly assigned to two groups. Each of the group were unaware of the other group’s existence. Furthermore, after the two groups have been established they were picked up as individual groups and brought to

The boys first showed that when humans are put together with strangers to work towards a common goal they will form groups with roles in order to work together better and more efficiently. This was shown from the formation of the two groups The Eagles and The Rattlers. The boys then showed that when put into a competition with another group that tension and rivalry would be sewn between the competing groups. This was illustrated through the actions the groups made against each other like destroying each others flags. The groups then showed that when faced with a common issue they could come together and work towards fixing the problems at hand. The boys showed that this was possible when they worked towards the common goal of fixing the water supply. The significance of this experiment exhibits that the cooperation of a group functioning towards a shared goal can do so much into solving the conflict peacefully as to a dysfunctional