The Search for Psychology’s Lost Boy
In 2009 the decades-old mystery of ‘Little Albert’ was finally solved. Or was it?
In the following scene, the rat returns. The baby cries, attempts to crawl away. The rabbit and the monkey also return, along with a different dog, and the baby cries each time—even without the loud noise. The once-placid infant is now a wailing wreck.
The grainy, black-and-white footage, filmed in 1919 and 1920, documents what has become a classic psychology experiment, described again and again in articles and books. The idea is that the baby was conditioned to be afraid, instilled with a phobia of all things furry.
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Chronicle of Higher Education
Published: Jun 1, 2014
Length: 19 minutes (4,990 words)