Solomon Asch Conformity Experiments (1951)

1532 Words4 Pages

In 1951, Solomon Asch carried out several experiments on conformity. The aim of these studies was to investigate conformity in a group environment situation. The purpose of these experiments was to see if an individual would be swayed by public pressure to go along with the incorrect answer. Asch believed that conformity reflects on relatively rational process in which people are pressured to change their behaviour. Asch designed experiments to measure the pressure of a group situation upon an individual judgment. Asch wanted to prove that conformity can really play a big role in disbelieving our own senses. Asch initiated his experiment by making one of the particpants at ease. He asked a serious of elementary questions where the four confederates answered them correctly so the fifth person also answered the question correct. This in sense gave the participant a false interpretation of the actual thinking behind Asch true experiment. The participants were asked to compare, identify and match one of three lines on the right card to the length of the line on the left card. This task was repeated several times to get a true picture of the data collated. Participants were not under any explicit demand to conform, as they received no physical or verbal coercion to do so. The specific hypothesis centered on the idea, “if group pressure can play influence and effect individuals perception, decision and attitudes”. The independent variable will be “Procedure”, and the dependent variable is the “level of conformity did change”. The experiments were quite simple, in that there was a seemingly harmless task to be performed, and the participants were instructed to choose the estimation of the lengths of a line when compared to two ... ... middle of paper ... ...y is decreased. Although Asch conducted many variations on his test of conformity, and he has been criticized as being too simplistic to accurately represent true conformist behaviour his experiment has stood the test of time and examination Works Cited Anderson, M, L, Taylor, H, F. (2008). Sociology. Understanding a Diversity Society. Thomson Higher Education. Belmont. (USA). Fourth Edition. Babbie, E. (2007) The Practice of Social Research. Thomson Higher Education. Belmont. (USA) Eleven Edition. Cardwell, M. Klanagan, C. (2003). Psychology As. Nelson Thornes Limited. Cheltenham. (UK). First Edition. Crisp, R, J. Turner, R, N. (2007). Essential Social Psychology. Sage Publications Limited. London. (UK). First Edition. Macionis. J, J. Plummer, K. (2005). Sociology. A global Introduction. Pearson Education Limited. Essex. (UK) Third Edition.

Show More
Related

  • Conflict Theory and the Movie Glory Road

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    Brinkerhoff, David B., Rose Weitz, Suzanne T. Ortega. Essentials of Sociology Ninth Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Film "Einstein's Letter"

    1855 Words  | 4 Pages

    Henslin, James M. (2006). Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 7th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

    Read More

  • Sandr In Solomon Asch's Opinions And Social Pressure

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many different factors to consider that play a part in experimental procedures. Without these variables, researchers would have a hard time making a claim about a particular topic, because they did not consider all sides of the experiment. An example of the variations done in experiments can be seen throughout Solomon Asch’s “Opinions and Social Pressure,”

    Read More

  • Confirming Weber's Law

    448 Words  | 1 Pages

    After the groups were separated into groups of three or four, we were instructed to perform three trials. In each group each person got to be an experimenter and a subject at least once. First we placed ten pennies into each cup, and let the blindfolded subject feel the cups at equal weight. We then placed a penny into the experiment cup (A) and told the subject to guess which was the heavier cup. If the subject guessed correctly, we would continue to give them the same two cups, in different hands and order, until they had guessed correctly five times. If the subject guessed incorrectly, another penny was added until they could guess right five times in a row. The purpose of the first weight was to get the subject and experimenter accustomed to the nature of the experiment. After the first trial of ten starting pennies, fifteen pennies were used as a starter. After that sixty pennies were used.

    Read More

  • The Power Of Situations Essay

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    As well as for having the people around them respond to a question differently than their answer. These situations can have a person feeling doubtful of themselves and feeling like they have to change their answers to conform to the majority of people’s responses. Asch informs his readers on an experiment concentrated on the influence of group pressures upon individuals, that he conducted himself. His experiment involved a group of young men, all in college who gathered together to compare the lengths of lines. All subjects were displayed two cards, one with a black single standard line and another card which had three lines with various lengths, and every individual had to answer which line was the same as on the other card (598). He explains that if one other person answers a question differently than the dissenter, it causes the dissenter to doubt and rethink about the choice they made. Asch describes that when a person contradicts the subjects answer, the subject was influenced a little with the confrontation, but continued to answer independently, and when it was two people contradicting the subject’s answer, the subject “accepted the wrong answer 13.6 per cent of the time.” But when it was more than two people, “the subjects’ errors jumped to 31.8 per cent” (Asch 600). He says “The dissenter becomes more and more worried and hesitant as the disagreement continues in succeeding trials; he may

    Read More

  • Discuss the Research on Compliance and Conformity Underlining

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    Asch (1951) did an experiment to test people's conformity skills with a simple task. The task was to compare a line with three others, one of which was the same size as the comparable line. This task was chosen because of its simplicity and anyone being tested (privately) was likely to give the correct answer. But when tested in a group of 3 or more, conformity of the person being tested rose to match the answers of the other peoples when the group had to give their judgment verbally. Asch set up the experiment so that he had at least one confederate and a participant, with the participant to sit on the second to last of the row so they gave their answer penultimate. When the group had to verbally give their answer, the research participant was more likely to conform with the majority even though the confederates were told to deliberately give the wrong answer. This conformity was noticeable when there were 3 or more confederates. There were 75% of the research participants that went along with the majority at least once. When the research participant was interv...

    Read More

  • Asch And Milgram's Experiment Essay

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    Asch and Milgram’s experiment was unethical in their methods of not informing the participant of the details surrounding the experiment and the unwarranted stress; their experiment portrayed the circumstances of real life situation surrounding the issues of obedience to authority and social influence. In life, we are not given the courtesy of knowledge when we are being manipulated or influenced to act or think a certain way, let us be honest here because if we did know people were watching and judging us most of us would do exactly as society sees moral, while that may sound good in ensuring that we always do the right thing that would not be true to the ways of our reality. Therefore, by not telling the participants the details of the experiment and inflicting unwarranted stress, Asch and Milgram’s replicated the reality of life. In “Options and Social Pressure” Solomon E. Asch conducts an experiment to show the power of social influence, by using the lengths of sticks that the participants had to match up with the best fit, Asch then developed different scenarios to see how great the power of influence is, but what he discovered is that people always conformed to the majority regardless of how big or small the error was the individual always gave in to the power of the majority.

    Read More

  • Self Disclosure Experiment

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    The results of the impressions of the experimenter and the experiment were higher in the fourth group with 455.5 and lower in the first group with 88.8. The impressions for the second group was 121.7 and 372.53 for group three. Impressions were high in the third group, but

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Social Psychology In Heathers

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    The most basic concept in social psychology is conformity. Conformity is the idea that behaviour or a belief is changed in order to follow, or conform, to what is considered the “norm.” One of the oldest experiments to support this notion was conducted in 1935 by Muzafer Sherif (Song, Ma, Wu, Li, 2012 p. 1366). There are two different types of

    Read More

  • Michel Foucault: Power and Identity

    1988 Words  | 4 Pages

    Macionis, J and Plummer, K (2005). Sociology A global Introduction. 3rd ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. p.436.

    Read More

  • Asch Effect On Conformity Experiment

    535 Words  | 2 Pages

    . . 'A'." This shows how we cave to conformity pressures, and there are multiple factors that encourage conformity in a group of people. Unanimity of the majority is a major factor. If everyone in a group agrees, that leads to extreme social pressure, however if even one person defects from the rest, then amount of social pressure drops drastically. This is the power of an ally. If one person is willing to challenge the group, they also encourage those who are unsure to also join the rebellion. If there are one or two people in a group, there is little pressure. However, when there are three people in a group, then the pressure dramatically increases. Self-esteem, unsurprisingly plays a large role in conforming in the Asch experiment. More conformity is present when the group has a high social status, too. Although the components that allow us to agree with others in a group are many, there will always be individuals who are independents. Despite the powerful pressures in their atmosphere, some can resist it, and stand their ground, even when the group gives a correct answer, and they give the wrong

    Read More

  • Social Structure and Its Effect On Our Lives

    1991 Words  | 4 Pages

    Van Krieken, R., et al. 2000, Sociology: Themes and Perspectives, 2nd edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest.

    Read More

  • Majority or Minority Influence

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    The second motive that explains why people conform according to Deutsch and Gerard, (1955) is based on informational social influence. According to Festinger, (1950, 1954 in Hogg & Vaughan 2007) this type of influence is associated with uncertainty. Here individuals are uncertain and lack knowledge as to how to behave in certain situations. Festinger referred to this as social comparison in which individuals are not fully confident about their beliefs, attitudes and opinions and therefore yield to majority in order to be correct. This occurs particularly under ambiguous conditions and is clearly demonstrated in Asch’s (1956 in Hogg and Vaughan 2007) and Sherif’s (1936 in Hogg and Vaughan 2007) studies in which participants converged on similar answers particularly when the tasks became extremely difficult for them to be able to rely on their own judgments (in Bailey et al.

    Read More

  • Sociology: Identifying Social Problems

    1687 Words  | 4 Pages

    [10] Kendall, Diana, et al. Sociology in Our Times. ITP Nelson and Co. Toronto, 1997. 126.

    Read More

  • Sex and Gender

    1769 Words  | 4 Pages

    Marsh, I and Keating, M., eds. (1996) Sociology: Making sense of society., ed [2006], England: Pearson Education.

    Read More

More about Solomon Asch Conformity Experiments (1951)

Open Document