Story · Ajahn Brahm
The fourth cookie always went to the supervisor
Content note: unverified study details
The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)
It was a cookie experiment. If those of you who know the cookie experiment it was actually quite revealing about the nature of human beings and what happens when they get into positions of authority. As you all know, a lot of troublesome people are those in positions of authority who boss you around and bully you. And of course, psychology experiments are very revealing because they take ordinary people and see what they do in in special situations and ordinary situations which reveal some of the nature of the human being. Not just special human beings, not uh failed human beings, but ordinary human beings. Because what they did, they had u these volunteers and they split them into groups of three. And they gave each of these little teams sort of a little job and a report to to write out. And two of the three were tasked with writing the report out and the third was supposed to check them. That's all just to check to make sure they wrote the report properly. So that third person was tacitly in a position of authority. And the main part of the experiment was when they brought a plate of cookies and some coffee in because it was hard work. They didn't realize that this was actually the main part of the experiment. It wasn't just a treat because they brought like was it five cookies in and there's only three people there. And apparently western psychology means that no one ever takes the last cookie. That's a no no. But it was the fourth cookie which was the interesting one. Who would take the fourth cookie? And that would always be the person who was checking everybody else. The supervisor, the one in authority, they would always think that they deserved that fourth cookie. And the other interesting thing was when they ate those two cookies, well, everyone else ate one, they would they would uh uh spill all sorts of cookie chips all over the place. They would have no proper sort of etiquette and eating because it was realized that for them in positions of authority, rules did not apply to them and they deserved more than anybody else
▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 8:15 (to 10:47)
A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)
In a psychology experiment Ajahn Brahm describes, the person placed in charge reliably took the extra cookie, scattered crumbs and ignored manners. Authority tempts us to believe we deserve more and that rules are for others. If you hold any power, at work or at home, watch for that fourth cookie.
In brief (our summary)
A psychology experiment split volunteers into threes: two wrote a report, one checked it. When five cookies arrived for three people (Western etiquette leaves the last), the fourth cookie always went to the checker — the one with authority — who also spilled crumbs and acted as if rules did not apply to him.
Teaching point
Authority quietly teaches people they deserve more and that rules are for others.
When this story may help
- workplace hierarchy
- seeing power corrupt
- family control
Themes
Source & credit
Told by Ajahn Brahm in Dealing With Difficult People | Ajahn Brahm | 09-07-2010 · 2010-07-11 · ▶ watch from 8:15 to 10:47 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia
Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned.
The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version