Stutter Study

Wendell Johnson, a psychology professor at the University of Iowa, was working on a study project in 1939 that theorized that stuttering was not a biological impact, as doctors assumed, but rather a learned trait that could be reduced or eradicated totally. He and a doctoral student, Mary Tudor, conducted an experiment with 22 children from a neighboring orphanage to see if a child with a stutter could be encouraged to stop, and if a normal speaker could be taught to acquire a stutter.

The youngsters were divided into four groups: 1A, stutterers informed there was nothing wrong with their speech; 1B, stutterers assured that they did stutter; 11A, normal speakers told there were big difficulties with their speech; and 11B, normal speakers reassured that their speech was great. The children's speech remained mostly intact at the end of the experiment: those who began with stutters continued to have them, and those who talked normally continued to do so.

The six children in group 11A suffered the most devastating consequences of the experiment; they spoke normally but were told they didn't. Because they were afraid of speaking improperly, the children grew worried, introverted, and unwilling to speak. Formerly gregarious, friendly children refused to speak up in class or interact with their peers because they were unsure of their abilities to communicate and were afraid of exposing themselves. Although the study remained relatively unknown and unpublished until 2001, when the San Jose Mercury News published a series of articles, prompting the University of Iowa to issue a public apology, the negative emotional and behavioral effects on the experiment's surviving members persist.