15-­‐01-­‐04  

1  

Solomon Asch (1907-1996)

•  Experiments illustrated how great pressure to conform is, specifically within a small group.

•  Conducted under guise of “test of visual judgment.”

•  Wanted to see effect of multiple wrong answers on a subject who presumably was able to tell which lines matched in line length test.

•  37 out of 50 test subjects responded with “obviously erroneous” answer at least once.

2014-2015 HSB4U I HUNT

1

5m

Overall Results

•  75% conformed at least once. •  33% went along with group on majority of trials. •  25% remained completely independent. •  When tested alone (no confederates),

subjects got more than 98% of judgments correct.

•  When tested with confederates, subjects only got 66% of judgments correct.

2014-2015 HSB4U I HUNT

2

5m

15-­‐01-­‐04  

2  

Why conform?

1.  Fear of being ridiculed and excluded or cast out of the majority, a plus point for the majority that allowed them to pressure individuals into answering incorrectly.

2.  A belief the group was better informed and knew the correct answer better than the individual, a theory coined as informational influence.

2014-2015 HSB4U I HUNT

3

5m

Why conform in life?

•  Conformity: a change in attitude or behavior due to the real or imagined presence of others.

•  Compliance: a change in behavior, but not attitude, due to the results of social pressure.

•  Acceptance: a change in both behavior and attitude. •  Sanity depends to some degree on belief that everyone

sees the same world we see. •  If this belief is challenged, we’d rather change what we

see (or what we say we see) than admit to ourselves (or others) we see a different world.

2014-2015 HSB4U I HUNT

4

5m