The Bobo Baby Experiment, led by psychologist Albert Bandura, tested whether people learned how to behave socially. Bandura wondered whether aggressive behavior could be gained by observing and imitating others. For this, he conducted an experimental study on children in 1961 with researchers at Stanford University. According to this experiment, children observed the behavior of adults and learned violent behavior from them and practiced them themselves.

Researchers inflicted physical and verbal violence on dolls painted like clowns, called Bobo Babies, in front of the children. Participants in the study were 36 girls and 36 boys, ages 3 to 6, attending Stanford's kindergarten. The researchers divided the children into three equal groups; A group of 24 people observed aggressive adult behaviors, the other group of 24 observed non-aggressive adult behaviors, while the last group of 24 did not observe any behavior.

These three groups were then further divided into six subgroups according to their gender. Half of these groups followed the behavior patterns displayed by people of the same sex, and half followed the behavior patterns displayed by the opposite sex. An aggressive role model, first female, was shown to 6 girls and 6 boys in the first group. The other group, consisting of 6 boys and 6 girls, was shown an aggressive male role model.

The children were seated individually at a table in the experiment room. Then the researchers left a mallet, table, chair, various toys, and Bobo Dolls, which they had previously abused, in front of them. Then the experts told the children that they can play with these materials. Children, by their nature, immediately got up to play, but this was not a simple game they always played.

The children in the group who observed the violent behavior pattern showed both physical and verbal aggression towards Bobo Baby. The children were hitting the doll with hammers and throwing it here and there.

In addition, the researchers verbally encouraged children to violence. In fact, the reason they did this was to understand whether the children adopted the aggressive attitudes that they had exhibited in the first place. The only thing that caught the attention of those in the non-aggressive behavior group was the toys next to the baby, so they didn't care about the baby. After observing the children like this for 10 minutes, the researchers took them outside.

Then the children were taken to separate rooms with different toys. The children started playing with the toys, and then one of the researchers went into each room and told the children not to play with the toys. Psychologists said those toys were one of their favourites, and they left them there for another child to play with. In fact, we can say that this attitude of psychologists was to see whether the impulse of aggression would occur in children. Then the experts took the children to another room, this time left toys with positive associations such as tea sets, plush teddy bears, crayons and animal figures.

There was also a mallet, toy gun, and punched wood in the room. Of course, the Bobo Babies too. There was also a one-sided mirror inside the room so the researchers could see the children. Children's behavior was observed for 20 minutes, and the results showed that children exposed to aggressive behavior patterns showed more aggression than those in the other group. In fact, this was a hypothesis that psychologists had been waiting to confirm from the very beginning. So it wasn't that surprising, it was something else that was surprising.

The interesting thing is that the girls watching violent behavior; The reason was that they applied physical violence to the male infant more and verbal violence to the female infant more.

In fact, the results of the study were similar for both sexes, but boys imitated physical violence more often than girls. In fact, it was concluded that men internalize what male role models do more. Another remarkable detail was that both girls and boys took male role models for physical aggression.

In terms of verbal aggression, each gender tended to imitate the attitudes of their fellows more. In fact, the striking situation here is that a general acceptance that physical violence is unique to masculinity is learned and internalized at an early age. Therefore, both genders were not inclined to question the physical violence perpetrated by men. Therefore, we can say that both girls and boys could easily imitate this example.

We can say that the results of this study support Bandura's Social Learning Theory, which argues that behaviors can be learned socially by observing others. Do you think violence is genetic or is it a socially learned condition?