Dartmouth professor made 2 groups to study 'facial scars.' What he secretly did next changed everything
'The group with the scar overwhelmingly reported that they felt judged. It was tense. The other person was distant because of the scar.'
On many occasions, the way we see ourselves or our self-image affects the way we see the world. Dr. Shadé Zahrai (@shadezahrai), a behavioral researcher and educator, sat down with Jay Shetty (@jayshetty) on his "On Purpose" podcast to speak about the different causes of self-doubt and how it can negatively impact a person's life. Zahrai brought up an interesting experiment from the 1970s conducted by Robert Kleck, a Dartmouth psychology professor, called the "1980 Dartmouth Scar Experiment."
She explained how Kleck brought together a group of people and divided them into two: One group was given a facial scar "from their right ear to the side of their mouth, big ugly scar;" the other group did not have any scars. He then sent both groups out to interact and hold conversations with strangers.
Both groups returned to report their findings after interacting with random strangers. Dr. Shadé Zahrai said, "The group with the scar overwhelmingly reported that they felt judged. It was tense. The other person was distant because of the scar." However, there is a twist. Before Prof. Robert Kleck sent out the participants, he applied moisturizing cream to their scars right after they had seen themselves in the mirror. What the participants did not know was that while applying the "moisturizing cream," Kleck was in fact removing the scars without their knowledge.
He made them walk out of the doors, believing that they had a big scar on their face. The group with the scars walked out "believing, expecting, they will be treated badly, poorly, judged, and that's what they experienced. It's wild," Zahrai said. According to the research by Kleck & Strenta, "Even without a visible scar, participants continued to believe that others were treating them differently due to their perceived deformity. They reported feeling stigmatized, as if people were reacting negatively to their appearance, despite the fact that no scar was present."
Zahrai continued to elaborate on what the experiment was trying to prove, "When you think about the implications for us in our lives, it may not be a physical scar, but we all have beliefs or expectations about ourselves based on how we see ourselves — our self-image. And then we're going to notice things that reinforce it because of how the brain is wired."
She lists a few of them: "Confirmation bias, selective attention, your brain is wired to magnify what you focus on. So, if you're going into your life, into your conversations, into your meetings, into your work, believing that you're not worthy, that you're not capable, that you don't deserve it, you're going to notice things that reinforce that, and it's only going to make you feel worse."
"Do not judge a book by its cover" is a popular phrase that means judging someone by their outer appearance can be incredibly misleading, since a person's outer appearance is not a reflection of their true character or personality. An online survey, "How People with Facial Acne Scars are Perceived in Society," was conducted across the USA, UK, Japan, Germany, Brazil, and France to see how facial acne scars are perceived by the population. A group of 4618 respondents aged 18 and above was taken for the survey, 33% of whom had facial acne scars. The results revealed, "the skin was the first thing noticed about the face by 41% when viewing pictures with scars vs 8% viewing clear skin." The survey also concluded that "facial acne scars are perceived negatively by society."
The video shared by Jay Shetty has garnered over 42k likes and more than 800 comments. Shetty and Dr. Shadé Zahrai's followers and fans loved the concept behind the experiment and shared how self-love is extremely important. @earthangeljazz_ said, "This is why giving yourself grace as you evolve and become more authentically you is so important.. You find peace within when you treat yourself with the kindness & patience you expect from others." @mahaaliofficial added, "This is such a valuable angle. Naming the drivers of self-doubt gives people something concrete to work with instead of just telling them to 'be more confident.' And the shift from comparison to emulation is powerful. One shrinks you. The other sharpens you."
You can follow Jay Shetty (@jayshetty | @jayshettypodcast) on Instagram for more inspirational content.
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