The experiments revealed the degree to which a person’s own opinions areinfluenced by those of a group.
What Is Conformity?
Do you think of yourself as a conformist or a non-conformist?
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Research suggests that people are often much more prone to conform than they believe they might be.
The experimenter asks each participant individually to pick the matching line segment.
So what do you do when the experimenter asks you which line is the right match?
Researchers have long been been curious about the degree to which people follow or rebel against social norms.
The purpose of the Asch conformity experiment was to demonstrate the power of conformity in groups.
The subjects were told that they were taking part in a “vision test.”
All told, a total of 50 students were part of Aschs experimental condition.
The confederates were all told what their responses would be when the line task was presented.
The naive participant, however, had no inkling that the other students were not real participants.
During the first part of the procedure, the confederates answered the questions correctly.
However, they eventually began providing incorrect answers based on how they had been instructed by the experimenters.
Control Condition
The study also included 37 participants in acontrol condition.
The experiments also looked at the effect that the number of people present in the group had on conformity.
When just one confederate was present, there was virtually no impact on participants' answers.
The presence of two confederates had only a tiny effect.
The level of conformity seen with three or more confederates was far more significant.
Asch went on to conduct further experiments so you can determine which factors influenced how and when people conform.
Another criticism is that the results of the experiment in the lab may not generalize to real-world situations.
Asch SE.Studies of independence and conformity: I.
A minority of one against a unanimous majority.Psychological Monographs: General and Applied.
In: Guetzkow H, ed.Groups, Leadership and Men; Research in Human Relations.Carnegie Press.
Britt MA.Psych Experiments: From Pavlov’s Dogs to Rorschach’s Inkblots.
Myers DG.Exploring Psychology(9th ed.
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