"Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes" Exercise and What It Means for Height

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott

"On that first day of the exercise, she designated the blue-eyed children as the superior group... She often exemplified the differences between the two groups by singling out students and would use negative aspects of brown-eyed children to emphasize a point.

At first, there was resistance among the students in the minority group to the idea that blue-eyed children were better than brown-eyed children. To counter this, Elliott lied to the children by stating that melanin is responsible for making children blue-eyed and was also linked to their higher intelligence and learning ability. Shortly thereafter, this initial resistance fell away. Those who were deemed "superior" became arrogant, bossy, and otherwise unpleasant to their "inferior" classmates. Their grades on simple tests were better, and they completed mathematical and reading tasks that had seemed outside their ability before. The "inferior" classmates also transformed – into timid and subservient children who scored poorer on tests, and even during recess isolated themselves, including those who had previously been dominant in the class. These children's academic performance suffered, even with tasks that had been simple before."

This was done as an experiment on racial issues, but replace eye color with height, and you'll see why I laugh at studies about tall people doing better in business and IQ tests. Also note how the teacher used the "melanin" excuse to explain how the hierarchy was biological. Doesn't that sound familiar? "Heightism is instinctive and natural, so shut up." Unfortunately, many short men buy into this and stop trying. In fact, many short men themselves parrot these "evolutionary" explanations.

I have no doubt that many short people, whether consciously or subconsciously, think "why bother trying my best? I'd be regarded as intrinsically inferior anyway." An obvious example would be a short man who wants to bulk up and lift heavy weights, but fears being viewed as a "typical ugly compensating stump." His full potential limited due to society's prejudice.

When one group is told they're inferior their whole lives, why wouldn't they perform worse? The answer is obvious, so speaking of eyes, society and all of its people should open theirs.