Having recently listened to the DOAC podcast with Konstantin Kisin I become aware of the Scar Experiment, conducted by Robert Kleck at Dartmouth University in 1980.
Participants (27 male, 21 female) were told that the experiment was meant to observe if people behaved differently towards those with facial scars. Participants were placed into rooms with no mirrors. A make-up artist proceeded to draw a scar on their face.
After the scar was drawn, participants were given a short glimpse of it with a pocket mirror. Participants were then invited to leave the room and interact with people in the building.
Before they left the room, the make-up artist told the participants that the scar needed some final touch-ups. But, what the make-up artist actually did next was to wipe off the make-up of the scar.
Participants left the room thinking they still wore a make-up scar.
They overwhelmingly reported back that people stared at their scars, and were mean and rude to them.
Now whether this is a true account of what happened, I am not sure. However, I remember chillingly being a spotty teenager and thinking that everyone was staring at the colossal pimple on my forehead and that they wouldn’t like me because of it. I also remember being embarrassed about failing my driving test for the second time and that if people found out they would think I was a loser and wouldn’t like me.
It was bad enough me thinking about it, never mind thinking that anyone else had noticed it and even worse commenting on it. I guess the point I am trying to get to is, that if you notice something a bit different about someone, you can bet that they are already feeling really conscious about it.
At The Talent Tap we work with young people to help them forge meaningful career paths. We tussle constantly with the language we use to describe where these young people come from and their background. Individuals don’t need to be regularly reminded of their so-called deficiencies by being bracketed or labelled.
So, if someone looks different to you or comes from a different part of the world or likes cats and not dogs, does it fundamentally matter? Let’s stop putting people in boxes to make ourselves feel better. Let’s embrace difference and diversity, to fuel a more innovative and creative society and workplace.
We can blame unconscious bias, or we can do something about it and check ourselves before we assume, offer a comment or write social media post.
You can watch the DOAC interview here: https://www.konstantinkisin.com/p/my-best-interview-yet-konstantin
You can read the full research report here: https://www.aknowbrainer.com/dartmouth-scar-experiment