'Grass on the Other Side Is Taller, Too'

Tin soldiers and toy Indians are helping the Social Relations Department prove that the same thing looks different to the same person.

A group of experience on children have shown that an individual's view of an object depends not only on its physical properties but also on the person's values, needs, and frustrations at the time.

In one of the tests, a six-year-old child is seated in front of three cylinders, one right before him and the other two a short distance away. The child is asked to name his favorites of two toy figures on the two distant cylinders.

Before the youngster is given his toy, he is asked to estimate its size by pulling a metal rod out of the cylinder right before him. In almost all cases the child guesses the toy to be a bit larger than its three-inch length.

The process is repeated a second time, but after the youngster has guessed the new toy's size, he is suddenly not allowed to have it. The tester than asks his subject to estimate again the size of the toy he desires.

This time the child guesses the toy to be still larger than he thought before.

According to members of the Social Relations Department, this proves that "the grass on the other side of the fence is not only greener but also taller."

These tests are being directed by Jerome S. Bruner, Ph.D, '41, associate professor of Social Psychology, and Leo J. Postman, Ph.D. '46, assistant professor of Social Psychology.

Experimental work on this theory has been going on for more than three years and will continue in the future. Several printed reports on parts of the experiments have already appeared.