Little Albert Experiment

The Little Albert experiment, conducted by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920, was a study in psychology that explored how emotions can be conditioned. They took a 9-month-old baby named Albert and initially observed him showing no fear towards a white rat. However, by pairing the rat with loud, frightening noises, Albert began to develop a fear of the rat. This experiment demonstrated that emotions could be learned through conditioning, contributing to the understanding of phobias and emotional responses in humans. It raised ethical concerns about the welfare of subjects in psychological studies.