Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

4-25-2025

Keywords

children, missing child experiment, social experiment

Disciplines

Developmental Psychology

Abstract

“The missing child experiment” refers to a popular, non-academic, social experiment that was first conducted in 2008 by a Local 6, a news station in Orlando, Florida. The “experiment” has since been replicated and adapted in popular culture and by psychological researchers. In the “experiment,” the news crew arranged for a child actor to sit on a bench inside the entrance of a local shopping mall. Mock missing child posters featuring the child actor’s face were posted at the mall’s entrance. The child was observed by the news crew and security personnel, with her father seated in a nearby café (Cosmo’s Weblog, 2008). The news crew recorded dozens of people entering the mall and passing the missing child posters. According to the news crew, many people failed to notice the posters; most of the people who did see the posters also saw the child but passed by without taking action. People who walked by and were interviewed on scene reported either not actually noticing the child, being uncertain of what to do, or being hesitant about approaching an unknown child in public due to fears that their interaction could be misunderstood by a nearby parent.

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