Name: Robbers Cave Experiment: Unmasking the Roots of Tribal Conflicts
Uploaded: 2025-07-31T17:57:55.000Z
Duration: 6 min 19 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

A science experiment on groups of boys from competing camps who have no idea they're being manipulated into fighting each other.

In the summer of 1954, a school bus with a group of 11 and 12-year-old boys arrived at Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma.

What the kids didn't know, there was another bus.

All the boys thought they were going camping.

Their parents at home believed the sponsored trip had something to do with leadership.

None of them knew that the camp staff were actually researchers and the boys part of a controversial experiment.

One of its goals, let the boys fight each other.

The Robbers Cave experiment was designed to unfold in three stages.

In-group formation, friction, and conflict resolution.

In the first week, each group did various activities without interacting with another.

The boys had fun, went swimming, and did hikes.

The boys formed friendships and started inventing their own subculture.

One group called themselves the Eagles, and the others chose to be the Rattlers.

They stenciled their names onto shirts and flags.

During the friction phase, the two groups came into contact with each other.

The researchers set up competitions with single prizes for the winners.

In other words, they established a limited resource for the two to battle over.

It didn't take long before the in-groups developed negative attitudes towards the out-group.

To make matters worse, the staff suggested to one group to dump buckets of mud inside the cabin of the others.

Eventually, the kids grew hateful, violent, and verbally abusive.

They burned each other's flags, and sometimes things escalated to the point that the camp staff had to step in.

First, the staff tried to reduce the prejudice between the groups by increasing contact and communication.

Then, the researchers blocked the valve to the camp's water tank.

As there was no more drinking water, the boys became progressively thirstier.

Then, the camp staff suggested that they all needed to collaborate to fix the problem.

Reluctantly, the group started to get to work.

Before long, the boys were mixing and cooperating.

There were no rattlers or eagles anymore, only a bunch of campers collaborating.

When the water finally came through, there was common rejoicing.

The researchers learned four key things from the experiment.

First, individual differences are not responsible for tribal conflicts.

Age, race, culture, or religion don't seem to matter.

Second, hostile attitudes arise when groups compete for resources that only one of them can get.

Third, discussions don't solve conflicts.

Fourth, only a common goal or enemy that promotes cooperation reduces the friction.

Two renowned psychologists, Muzaffar Sharif and his wife Carolyn Wood Sharif, were behind the controversial experiment and later established a theory.

Realistic conflict theory explains how hostility arises as a result of competition for limited resources, such as money, power, military protection, or social status.

Whether these resources are actually limited or just perceived to be so doesn't matter.

Their work helps us understand the mechanisms of discrimination against outsiders, which escalates during shortages.

For example, when in-groups think that good jobs are hard to find, they often try to remove sources of out-group competition, lobby for legal restrictions, or deny newcomers access.

Do tribal conflicts only arise as a result of competition for scarce goods?

And if so, are shared goals and common enemies really the only way to peace?

Or is the theory flawed and not applicable to adults?

After all, children are easier to influence, not only to build a prejudice, but also to change their ideas again later.

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Learn how it works and what's in it for you.

And if you are a parent or educator, check out our website sproutschools.com.

There you can find this and other video lessons, additional resources, and classroom activities.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Robbers Cave Experiment: Unmasking the Roots of Tribal Conflicts

perceive

eventually

individual

bunch