Bobo doll imitation 1961
Preschool children who watched a live adult attack an inflatable doll later reproduced the adult's actions more often than children who saw a quiet adult or no adult.
Main paper: Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 575–582. https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bandura/bobo.htm
The question
Can children learn new aggressive actions just by watching a model, with no reward for imitating?
Design: experiment
The researchers set the conditions and compare outcomes between or within groups. Each profile says whether participants were randomly assigned.
Children were matched on rated aggression and then assigned to groups, as the authors report. The models were live adults in 1961, not the later filmed versions.
Aggressive model
- Watch an adult attack the doll
- Then play in a room with the doll
Result reportedMore imitative aggression
Nonaggressive model
- Watch an adult play quietly
- Then play in a room with the doll
Result reportedLittle imitative aggression
Control
- See no adult
- Then play in a room with the doll
Result reportedBaseline
Original diagram drawn for this site from the descriptions in the sources. It is a simplified summary, not a figure from the paper.
Procedure
The participants were 72 children, 36 boys and 36 girls, aged 37 to 69 months, from the Stanford University nursery school. After matching on ratings of aggression, children were assigned to groups. Some watched an adult attack a Bobo doll with distinctive physical and verbal actions for about ten minutes. Others watched an adult who played quietly and ignored the doll. A control group of 24 children saw no adult.
Each child was then mildly frustrated and moved to a room with aggressive and nonaggressive toys for 20 minutes. Observers behind a one-way mirror scored behavior in short intervals. The sex of the model and of the child were varied.
Findings
Children exposed to the aggressive adult reproduced more of the model's physical and verbal attacks than the nonaggressive and control groups. Those latter groups showed little imitative aggression. Boys reproduced more physical imitation than girls; verbal imitation did not show the same difference.
Other aggression measures did not all follow one pattern. The quiet-model group used the mallet less than controls, but a broad claim that every form of aggression decreased would overstate the results.
Interpretation
The authors concluded that observation alone can produce new behavior, without direct reward and without the child needing to identify with the model.
Limits on what it shows
- The doll is a toy designed to be hit, so hitting it may differ from harming a person.
- The sample came from one university nursery school, and the test lasted 20 minutes in a room resembling the demonstration.
- The study shows short-term imitation after a single exposure. It does not show lasting changes in aggression or effects of media.
Ethics
Children watched an adult behave aggressively and were then deliberately frustrated by the experimenters before testing. Parental consent, a plan for debriefing and a check on the children afterward are the safeguards a study like this would need.
Replication and reassessment
Copying an adult hitting a toy is a specific outcome. It does not establish lasting violence, effects of filmed models, or harm toward people. Those questions require different measures and studies, rather than treating the 1961 procedure as a test of all media effects.
Think it through. An original practice question written for this site.
What does the control group of children who saw no adult let the researchers conclude?
Show a way to reason about it
It shows how much of this behavior children produce on their own in the same room. Without it, higher aggression after the aggressive model could be a normal level. The quiet-model group adds a second comparison: what the model does, not just the presence of an adult, makes a difference.
Nothing you think or select here is recorded.
Textbook connection
Covered in this sectionOpenStax Psychology 2e, 6.4 Observational Learning (Modeling)
Section describes the Bobo doll study.
Sources and access scope
Each label says how much of the source was opened while preparing this profile. An unopened source is listed so the claim can be checked, not because it was read.
- Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 575–582. https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bandura/bobo.htmOriginal researchSelected full-text sections inspected
Classics in the History of Psychology reproduction. Sample, groups, procedure and results come from sections inspected with page tools.
- Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/6-4-observational-learning-modelingTextbook contextOpened, page summary only
Textbook context. The section describes the Bobo doll study; it was read through a page summary.