The Lord of the Flies is an incredible work of fiction which looks at the very structure of society and the essence of human nature. But it’s surely just a figment of the author, William Golding’s imagination? You might be shocked to hear that a similar experiment really did take place…here’s the truth about the real-life Lord of the Flies.
A fascination with experimentation
Psychologist Muzafer Shefir, Harvard graduate, developed a fixation with testing social psychology and backed by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation devised an experiment on a group of 11-year-old boys.
Setting up a faux summer camp, he split the boys into teams and deliberately pitted them against each other, even inventing forced emergencies such as a forest fire. None of the boys nor their parents knew it was an experiment.
However, Muzafer Shefir was thwarted as despite the best efforts the camp members all stayed very friendly. The psychologist, therefore, decided to repeat the experiment in more extreme conditions.
Robbers Camp Experiment
The second attempt at the experiment took place in a wilderness camp in the foothills of the mountains and saw the boys split into two teams which were originally kept separated.
Once introduced to each other, the staff fired up each group to hate the other, even going as far as providing them with matches and encouraging physical conflict.
The experiment succeeded where the previous one failed and the two groups had to be separated once more due to the escalating violence. In the end, Muzafer Shefir created harmony and eased tensions by simulating a water shortage which meant they all had to pull together.
Despite the apparent peaceful ending, many of the boys reported still feeling deeply disturbed by the event, even as a grown-up reflecting back on the time. The experiment became very famous but was widely criticized and today is dismissed as being unethical and potentially very dangerous.
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