Psychologist Albert Bandura came  up with an interesting experiment  

to answer that exact question and form a theory.

Bandura came up with the social  learning theory in the 1960s,  

a time dominated by scholars who  didn't believe Bandura's idea  

and argued that learning was always the result  of classical and operational conditioning.

To prove that children can  learn by mere observation,  

Bandura came up with the Bobo Doll  Experiments - a set of controversial studies,  

which involved preschool children,  adult models and a stand-up punch doll.

In the first set of experiments, the children were  seated alone in a corner of the room. From there  

they observed an adult actor aggressively kicking  and scolding the Bobo doll for about 10 minutes.

Afterwards, the same child was put  into a new playroom where another  

adult deliberately frustrated the child by  taking away the toys the child played with.

The frustrated child was then put back into the  room with the Bobo doll where Bandura and his  

team made the following 3 observations: 1. Children who initially saw the adult  

punching the doll, often copied the behavior. 2. Boys were three times more likely to do so. 

3. Boys reproduced the behavior twice as often,  if they observed a man do it compared to boys  

who observed a female actor. Girls were  also more influenced by same-sex models.

To find out if movies would have the same effect,  

Bandura let some children watch the  model live, and others watch it on video,  

or as a cartoon animation. As all  three groups showed similar responses,  

Bandura concluded that children imitate others  regardless of where they have seen the behavior.

In the last variation of the experiments,  Bandura wanted to know if the children would  

act differently when the models were reinforced  or punished for their behavior towards the doll.  

Now, the children first  saw the actor hit the doll,  

and then observed another adult enter the room.  This second adult would then react to the actor.

These last results showed that it did not make  much of a difference to the children whether the  

aggressor was praised or not. However, the kids  who saw that the model was punished, displayed  

much less aggression later, an effect which  was especially true for girls. In other words,  

seeing others being rewarded does not  necessarily motivate us to copy their behavior.  

Seeing others being punished, on the other hand,  can significantly diminish our will to copy it.

The fact that Bandura was able to prove that  children also learn by observing others,  

was a breakthrough in psychology.  As a consequence of his findings,  

scholars and government officials argued  that we should ban violence in films and  

games. Others suggested that the Bobo Doll  studies are not studies of aggression,but  

rather show that the children are simply motivated  by the desire to please adults or act like them.

Bandura and his co-author  Richard Walters later defined  

five key tenets of the Social Learning Theory:

1. Learning is a cognitive process  that takes place in a social setting. 

2. Learning can occur by observing a  behavior AND the consequences of such 

3. Learning can happen without an observable  change in behavior, because we may learn  

without displaying what we have learned. 4. Reinforcements play a role but are  

not entirely responsible for learning. 5. Cognition, behavior, and environment  

all mutually influence each other — a  process called reciprocal determinisms.

Bandura, who in college attended a  psychology course only to kill time,  

soon became passionate about the topic and then  one of most cited psychologists in history.

About reality, he said: "Most of the images  of reality on which we base our actions  

are really based on vicarious experience."

What do you think? How much of your  learning comes from observing others?  

And if you learn socially, who  are your greatest teachers?

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