In the summer of 1954, the psychologist Muzafer Sherif and his colleagues took 22 boys to a camp at Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma. The boys were 11 and 12 years old and did not know each other. They were split into two groups. The groups called themselves the Eagles and the Rattlers.
The staff then set up a tournament. The winning group would get a trophy, and each winner a medal and a pocket knife. The losers got nothing. The Eagles burned the Rattlers’ flag. Later the staff created problems that neither group could solve alone, such as a blocked water supply and a stuck food truck.
The study has critics. In her 2018 book The Lost Boys, Gina Perry argues that the staff shaped events more than the published account admits.