The idea in the 1930s and 1940s was to build a system by which people's actions and behaviors--eventually even their thoughts--could be predicted and controlled. To cure society's ills was the goal. The early "social scientists" ran animals, then men, through mazes, strapping them to galvanic skin response recorders and "punishment grills." With World War II came federal money and new techniques, as vast amounts of information were collected, filed,...

Kenneth Clark's demonstration that Black children preferred white dolls to black ones was one of many studies to show the debilitating psychological effects of racism and segregation. Clark and other social scientists helped to break segregation.