Solomon Asch Conformity Experiment

Group conformity can be defined as a change in a person’s behavior or opinions as a result or imagined pressure from a person or group of people. Conformity is basically just a type of social influence involving a change in belief and behavior in order to fit in with the group. There are different forms of conformity, for example, bullying, persuasion, teasing, and criticism. There have been many experiments in sociology investigating conformity or group pressure. One of the experiments that stood out to me the most was the Solomon Asch’s experiment. The experiment was tested to demonstrate the power of conformity in groups. This topic is very interesting because it makes me aware how society really is these days. It makes me wonder if I am

If you are like most people, you believe that you don’t conform to a group, but with peer pressure and blending in, is that really the case?

In the Solomon Asch’s experiment, Solomon of Swarthmore College asked groups of student to participate in a “vision test”. In reality, all but one of the participants were confederates or accomplices of the experimenter, and the study was really about how the remaining student would react to the helpers behavior’s. In Asch’s theory, the participants - the real subjects and the confederates - were all seated in a classroom. They were asked a variety of questions about a set of lines - a reference line and a set of three lines A, B and C - such as how long is A, compare the length of A to an everyday object, which line was longer than the other, which lines were the same length, etc. The group was told to announce their answers to each question out loud. The confederates always provided their answers before the study participant, and always gave the same answer as each other. They answered a few questions correctly, but eventually began providing incorrect responses. The tested participant begins to question the group answers for a while, however still answering it correctly. The confederates’

Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.” (David Icke) I find conformity very unusual. In America, we say to everyone to be their self and not change them selves to be other people, but we tend to follow trends and be someone we are not. We want to be unique and special but in the end we conform to whatever we see and hear. Conforming in our world today is mostly people afraid to stand out. You see conformity most in life, school, work, and today’s generation. Conformity in teenagers, mostly people wearing the same brands or just acting the same way, and forgetting about there moral values because they are afraid of what others may say. People usually give in to conformity because it’s the easiest to do, rather then go up against something that they feel is right or do what they want. People choose to just do what everyone else does because they are afraid that other may not accept them or their values. I feel myself as a conformist from sticking with the trend by wearing certain types of clothes, listening to a genre of music, or believing in what other people believe. I soon think why would you want to be like everyone else in our society today not many people have the courage to do or say what