# The Little Albert Experiment Two Teams Found Two Different Boys

Source page: https://underthebehavior.com/episodes/little-albert-experiment

What happened to Little Albert after the 1920 white rat study? Two research teams named two different boys. The paper, the records and both cases.

Two teams have named two different boys: Douglas Merritte, who died at six, and Albert Barger, who lived until 2007. Beck, 2009. Powell, 2014

12:28

## The short answer

Nobody knows for sure. The 1920 paper says Albert left the hospital on the day of the last tests, so nobody tried to remove the fear. In 2009, Hall Beck's team named Douglas Merritte, who died at six. In 2014, Russell Powell and Nancy Digdon's team named Albert Barger, who lived until 2007. Both cases are still argued in print.
1. [Episodes](https://underthebehavior.com/episodes/)
2. Episode 2
1. [0:00 Little Albert: two endings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=0s)
2. [0:36 The baby and the hospital](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=36s)
3. [1:47 The experiment: seven pairings with a white rat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=107s)
4. [2:47 What the 1920 paper shows](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=167s)
5. [5:32 How the story grew in textbooks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=332s)
6. [7:14 The first answer: Douglas Merritte](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=434s)
7. [9:07 The second answer: Albert Barger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=547s)
8. [10:58 What happened to Albert Barger later](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=658s)
9. [11:58 What the paper still tells](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=718s)
10. [12:16 Next: the 1944 Minnesota starvation study](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=736s)

## Famous version vs the record
- Famous version: The record
- Albert came to fear everything white and furry.: He kept playing with his blocks. Ten days on, his reaction to the rat was much less marked. Watson and Rayner, 1920
- Watson cured the fear before the study ended.: Albert left the hospital on the day of the last tests. Nobody ever tried to remove the fear. Watson and Rayner, 1920, and Harris, 2011
- Little Albert was a motherless orphan.: His mother was a wet nurse at the same hospital. Watson and Rayner, 1920, and Harris, 2011
- We know who Little Albert was.: Two teams named two boys, Douglas Merritte in 2009 and Albert Barger in 2014. Both cases are still argued. Beck, 2009. Powell, 2014. Fridlund, 2020
- Little Albert feared animals for the rest of his life.: Nobody knows. Albert Barger's niece described a dislike of dogs. His team could neither confirm nor deny a link. Powell and colleagues, 2014

## The story in 8 scenes
1.

**1** Little Albert: two endings

Two scientists wrote him up in 1920, as Albert B. Their paper ends the day he left the hospital. [1](#src-1)

 [Watch at 0:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=9s)
2.

**2** The experiment: seven pairings with a white rat

A white rat was taken from a basket and held out to him. Just as his hand touched it, the bar was struck behind his head. [1](#src-1)

 [Watch at 1:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=114s)
3.

**3** What the 1920 paper shows

Ten days after the pairings, his reaction to the rat was much less marked. [1](#src-1)

 [Watch at 3:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=203s)
4.

**4** What the 1920 paper shows

They never got to test it. Albert was taken from the hospital the day of those last tests. He was 12 months and 21 days old. [1](#src-1)

 [Watch at 4:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=287s)
5.

**5** How the story grew in textbooks

In 2014, a researcher named Griggs checked 23 current textbooks. Some still got the spread of the fear wrong. [11](#src-11)

 [Watch at 6:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=414s)
6.

**6** How the story grew in textbooks

The first came in 2009, from Hall Beck, a psychologist at Appalachian State. Beck and his team searched for seven years. [2](#src-2)

 [Watch at 7:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=430s)
7.

**7** The second answer: Albert Barger

Powell's team said Albert Barger matches the paper better than Douglas Merritte does. They also wrote that their own case was not conclusive. [4](#src-4)

 [Watch at 10:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=606s)
8.

**8** What happened to Albert Barger later

He died in 2007. His niece says he died before finding out he may have been Little Albert. [4](#src-4)

 [Watch at 11:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo&t=697s)

7

pairings of the white rat and the loud bar, over two sessions. Ten days later, his reaction to the rat was much less marked.

Watson and Rayner, 1920

### What happened

Albert was raised almost from birth inside a hospital, where his mother was a wet nurse. John B. Watson and his graduate student, Rosalie Rayner, showed him a white rat. Just as his hand touched it, someone struck a hammer on a steel bar behind his head. Seven pairings over two sessions, and he cried at the rat alone.

The story grew in the retelling. Harris reports that in 1965 a psychologist named Eysenck made Albert a motherless orphan. Some textbooks made the coat white, and some said Watson cured the fear. Neither is in the paper. In 2014, Griggs checked 23 current textbooks, and some still got the spread of the fear wrong.

Hall Beck's team searched for seven years. They named Douglas Merritte, born on March 9, 1919, whose gravestone gives May 10, 1925. In 2014, a second team named Albert Barger. His hospital file reads Albert, W, Barger. Powell's team wrote that their own case was not conclusive.

Later in life, Albert Barger's full name was William Albert Martin. His niece said he disliked dogs. As a boy, he told her, he saw his pet dog killed in an accident. He died in 2007, before finding out he may have been Little Albert.

### Read the start of the transcript

## Transcript

0:00 Little Albert may have died at six.

0:02 Or lived until 2007.

0:05 He's the baby from psych class, the one taught to fear a white rat.

0:09 Two scientists wrote him up in 1920, as Albert B.

0:13 Their paper ends the day he left the hospital.

0:16 For almost ninety years, not a single fact about him was verified.

[Read the full transcript](https://underthebehavior.com/episodes/little-albert-experiment/transcript)

## Questions

### Is Little Albert still alive?

Neither boy named so far is. Douglas Merritte died in 1925, at six. Albert Barger died in 2007. Nobody has proven which boy, if either, was Little Albert.

### Who was Little Albert?

The 1920 paper calls him Albert B. A 2009 paper named Douglas Merritte. A 2014 paper named Albert Barger, whose hospital file reads Albert, W, Barger. Both cases are still argued in print.

### Did Little Albert stay afraid of animals?

Nobody knows. Beck's team found no family stories of fear for Douglas. Albert Barger's niece described a dislike of dogs, and his team could neither confirm nor deny a link to the experiment.

## Sources (13)

### Show all 13 sources
1. Watson, J. B., and Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3(1), 1 to 14. [doi.org/10.1037/h0069608](https://doi.org/10.1037/h0069608)
2. Beck, H. P., Levinson, S., and Irons, G. (2009). Finding Little Albert: A journey to John B. Watson's infant laboratory. American Psychologist, 64(7), 605 to 614. [doi.org/10.1037/a0017234](https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017234)
3. Fridlund, A. J., Beck, H. P., Goldie, W. D., and Irons, G. (2012). Little Albert: A neurologically impaired child. History of Psychology, 15(4), 302 to 327. [doi.org/10.1037/a0026720](https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026720)
4. Powell, R. A., Digdon, N., Harris, B., and Smithson, C. (2014). Correcting the record on Watson, Rayner, and Little Albert: Albert Barger as "psychology's lost boy". American Psychologist, 69(6), 600 to 611. [doi.org/10.1037/a0036854](https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036854)
5. Digdon, N., Powell, R. A., and Harris, B. (2014). Little Albert's alleged neurological impairment: Watson, Rayner, and historical revision. History of Psychology, 17(4), 312 to 324. [doi.org/10.1037/a0037325](https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037325)
6. Fridlund, A. J., Beck, H. P., Goldie, W. D., and Irons, G. (2020). The case for Douglas Merritte: Should we bury what is alive and well? History of Psychology, 23(2), 132 to 148. [doi.org/10.1037/hop0000142](https://doi.org/10.1037/hop0000142)
7. Digdon, N. (2020). The Little Albert controversy: Intuition, confirmation bias, and logic. History of Psychology, 23(2), 122 to 131. [doi.org/10.1037/hop0000055](https://doi.org/10.1037/hop0000055)
8. Harris, B. (2020). Journals, referees, and gatekeepers in the dispute over Little Albert, 2009 to 2014. History of Psychology, 23(2), 103 to 121. [doi.org/10.1037/hop0000087](https://doi.org/10.1037/hop0000087)
9. Harris, B. (1979). Whatever happened to Little Albert? American Psychologist, 34(2), 151 to 160. As described in Powell and colleagues, 2014. [doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.34.2.151](https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.34.2.151)
10. Harris, B. (2011). Letting go of Little Albert: Disciplinary memory, history, and the uses of myth. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 47(1), 1 to 17. [doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.20470](https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.20470)
11. Griggs, R. A. (2014). The continuing saga of Little Albert in introductory psychology textbooks. Teaching of Psychology, 41(4), 309 to 317. [doi.org/10.1177/0098628314549702](https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628314549702)
12. Kalm, L. M., and Semba, R. D. (2005). They starved so that others be better fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment. The Journal of Nutrition, 135(6), 1347 to 1352. [doi.org/10.1093/jn/135.6.1347](https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/135.6.1347)
13. Hemstreet, D. E., and Weisz, G. M. (2024). One page in the history of starvation and refeeding. Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal, 15(2), e0010. [doi.org/10.5041/rmmj.10524](https://doi.org/10.5041/rmmj.10524)

## Keep going
- [Is the Bystander Effect Real? The Kitty Genovese Story](https://underthebehavior.com/episodes/kitty-genovese-bystander-effect)
- [False memory test How many of 15 words can you recall?](https://underthebehavior.com/tests/false-memory-test)

The Little Albert Experiment Two Teams Found Two Different Boys

12:28 · Episode 2 · YouTube [Watch the episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t9kij_hqo)