The Doll Study

In the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark; a husband and wife team of African American psychologists designed and conducted a series of experiments known colloquially as “the doll tests” to study the psychological effects of segregation on African-American children. The “Doll Study” examined Black elementary school students and how they perceived black dolls versus white dolls. They found that the children associated black dolls with negative traits while attributing positive traits with the white dolls. The African-American children felt that black dolls most reflected them, demonstrating that Black children had internalized racist messages about themselves in comparison to white children. The study was used in the Brown V. Board of Education case in 1954 to determine that segregated schools were detrimental for Black children and hurt their self-worth. This showed that segregation leads to inequality. Their findings also showed that Black children can experience internalized racism as early as age three .

Drs. Clark used four dolls, identical except for color, to test children’s racial perceptions. Their subjects were children between the ages of three to seven. There were 134 children in the southern group that were tested in segregated nursery schools and public schools in Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, and Little Rock, Arkansas. These children had had no experience in racially mixed situations. In the northern group, 119 children were tested in racially mixed nursery and public schools of Springfield, MA.  They were asked to identify both the race of the dolls and which color doll they prefer. A majority of the children preferred the white doll and assigned positive characteristics to it. The Clarks concluded that “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation” created a feeling of inferiority among African-American children and damaged their self-esteem . Kenneth Clark testified at three of the trials and helped write a summary of all five trials’ social science testimony that was used in the Supreme Court case. He told judges and juries that African-American children’s preference for white dolls represented psychological damage that was reinforced by segregation .

Of note, while Dr. Clark was conducting experiments in rural Arkansas, he asked a black child which doll was most like him. The child responded by smiling and pointing to the brown doll: “That’s a n\*gger. I’m a n\*gger.” Dr. Clark described this experience “as disturbing, or more disturbing than the children in Massachusetts who would refuse to answer the question or who would cry and run out of the room.”. These results upset the Clarks so much that they delayed publishing their conclusions .

In 2020, Dr. Sturdivant published an article entitled *"I’m Gonna Cook My Baby in a Pot”: Young Black Girls’ Racial Preferences and Play Behavior*, after she switched her daughter to a virtually all-white preschool, and her daughter started saying that she did not like her dark skin. She placed four racially diverse dolls (white, Latina, Black with lighter skin, and Black with medium skin) in a diverse preschool classroom and observed Black preschool girls as they played for one semester. Without asking specific questions as the Clarks did, Dr. Sturdivant still found a great deal of bias in how the girls treated the dolls. The girls rarely chose the Black dolls during play. On the rare occasions that the girls chose the Black dolls, they mistreated them. One time a Black girl put the doll in a pot and pretended to cook the doll. That was not something the girls did with the dolls that weren’t Black. When it came time to do either of the Black dolls’ hair, the girls would pretend to be hairstylists and say, “I can’t do that doll’s hair. It’s too big,” or, “It’s too curly.” But they did the hair for the dolls of other ethnicities. While they preferred to style the Latina doll’s straight hair, they were also happy to style the slightly crimped hair of the white doll as well. The children were also more likely to step over or even step on the Black dolls to get to other toys. But that didn’t happen with the other dolls. . Dr. Sturdivant's findings indicated that young Black girls had a strong preference for the nonblack dolls. This preference was evident in their repeated rejection of the Black dolls. These findings have significant implications for early childhood teachers and how they anticipate notions or misconceptions children may have about race, structure discussions and activities about race and racism, and scaffold children's development of their racial identity.

## Impact

This study by the Clarks was used in a case known as Brown V. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 case. The Clarks used dolls to investigate how young Black children viewed their racial identities, and their results showed that most Black children preferred to play with white dolls, showing the effects of life in a society that was intolerant of African Americans. This study was resourceful in helping the United States in understanding the lingering effects of segregation. This study helped convince the supreme court to end segregation in schools. One of the Black dolls is on display at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas.

The couple, Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark opened a non-profit called Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem in New York, in 1946, and this non-profit continues to help the community over 70 years later. The Northside Center for Child Development was the first and for a long time the only private child guidance clinic in Harlem. Its mission is to foster the healthy development of children and families by providing comprehensive , individualized high quality mental health, counseling and educational services to children and families.

The Doll study was replicated in 2006 by Kiri Davis, a high school student in New York. Kiri Davis replicated the study to see how far the society has come in its attitude toward race since the 1940s. Davis asked 4-and 5-year-old kids at a Harlem school the same questions, and she found the same results as the Clarks. In Davis' test, 15 of the 21 children preferred the white dolls. She presented her study in her award-winning video, "A Girl Like Me."

## References

1. McMillan, M. (1988). The Doll Test Studies-from Cabbage Patch to Self-Concept. *Journal of Black Psychology*, *14*(2), 69–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/00957984880142006
2. Tomes, H. (2004, June). In the public interest: The case--and the research--that forever connected psychology and policy. *Monitor on Psychology*, *35*(7). http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/itpi
3. Burnett, M. N., & Sisson, K. (1995). Doll Studies Revisited: A Question of Validity. *Journal of Black Psychology*, *21*(1), 19–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/00957984950211003
4. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/psychologist-work-racial-identity-helped-overturn-school-segregation-180966934/
5. https://www.naacpldf.org/brown-vs-board/significance-doll-test/
6. https://guildservices.org/8-black-psychologists-who-made-history/
7. https://i2cdn.turner.com/cc/2010/images/05/13/doll.study.1947.pdf
8. https://www.history.com/news/brown-v-board-of-education-doll-experiemnt
9. https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-when-1-recreated-the-famous-doll-test-that-looked-at-how-black-kids-see-race-153780
10. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10643-020-01095-9

## Further Reading

https://peacefulscience.org/articles/science-civil-rights-and-the-doll-test/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26529244

http://cdf.childrensdefense.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8283

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://guildservices.org/8-black-psychologists-who-made-history/
2. ↑ https://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/05/13/doll.study.1947.pdf
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.history.com/news/brown-v-board-of-education-doll-experiment
4. ↑ https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-when-i-recreated-the-famous-doll-test-that-looked-at-how-black-kids-see-race-153780
5. ↑ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10643-020-01095-9