Soda Cracker Experiment

The soda cracker experiment was carried out by Kurt Lewin's student Jerome D. Frank in the mid-1930s to investigate children's resistance to food intake. It is considered to be one of the role models that inspired Stanley Milgram to conduct his experiments on obedience (see Milgram experiment ).

Course of the experiment

In the experiment, the experimenter asked adult test subjects to eat twelve unsalted, poorly tasty cookies. A first group of test subjects was told that the scientific experiment required eating soda crackers. These test subjects usually ate the crackers without showing open rejection (situation 1).

A second group was told that it made no difference to the experiment whether the test subjects eat the soda crackers or not, but that the experimenter would try to get the test subjects to eat these crackers. In this group, various forms of resistance against the sometimes violent efforts of the experimenter to get the test subjects to eat quickly arose (situation 2).

The test subjects in the third group were only given this information after they had eaten a first biscuit with the experimenter. In this case the typical reaction of the test subjects was great confusion about whether or not to continue eating the cookie (situation 3).

Reception of the experiment

→ Main article : Milgram experiment

Inspired by the soda cracker experiment, Stanley Milgram carried out what is arguably the most famous obedience experiment in the early 1960s.

literature

• Jerome D. Frank: Experimental Study of Personal Pressures and Resistance . In: Journal of General Psychology, Vol. 30–1944, pp. 23–64.