WARLORD OF THE FLIES
When boys started fighting at an Oklahoma summer camp in 1954, social psychologist Muzafer Sherif was jubilant. Disguised as a caretaker, he scribbled excitedly in his notebook as he watched them punching and kicking. Here, at last, was proof of his theory: that normally upstanding and fairminded 11-year-olds could turn into tribal savages.
Sherif believed that violence wasn’t triggered by differences in personality, race or religion. What caused conflict was the struggle for a limited resource – whether it be land, water or simply a sporting trophy.
A previous attempt to prove his point, in 1953, had been ‘catastrophic’ because the boys all got on well, even after being split into two teams – Panthers and Pythons – and pitched against each other in a fiercely competitive tournament. Sherif had then cut the Panthers’ tent-ropes and stolen their clothes, assuming they would blame their opponents. But the Pythons swore on the Bible it wasn’t them and the Panthers accepted their word.
In fact it was the adults who ended up fighting, as Sherif blamed his research- ers – all posing as camp staff – for the ‘failure’. They in turn objected to acting as agents provocateurs, regarding it as a ‘serious violation’ of the experimental method.
To ensure a more belligerent camp in 1954 he recruited only athletes, boys who thrived on rivalry. Even then, however, some were put off by the winner-takes-all intensity. ‘Maybe we could just make friends with these guys,’ one boy suggested. Sherif did his utmost to prevent it. ‘A very destructive job was done,’ he noted happily after overturning one team’s beds and ripping up their comics. The boys were soon slugging it out so violently that a researcher had to call a halt, fearing complaints from parents.
For, incredibly, none of the people who sent their sons to Sherif ’s camp knew that the children were psychological guinea-pigs. He had said that he wished ‘simply to study the best programs and procedures for campers’, preparing boys for ‘better citizenship’. No hint that it would be more like a re-enactment of Lord Of The Flies.
Gina Perry seeks out some of these ‘lost boys’, and is appalled to discover, more than 60 years on, that they still don’t realise they were being studied. ‘I’m not traumatised,’ one tells her after learning the truth, ‘but I don’t like lakes, camps, cabins or tents. My kids always said: “Why is it, Dad, that you never want to go camping?” ’
Although Perry’s book is about 100 pages too long, her central point never loses its shock value: ‘How many psychological wounds were caused in pursuit of scientific and historical understanding?’
Come to that, how much understanding did the experiment produce anyway? ‘What did they prove?’ asks one camp veteran. ‘That you can set things up so people will argue and fight? That’s news?’
‘More than 60 years on, some of these “lost boys” didn’t realise they were being studied’