Asch Conformity Analysis

In 1932, Jenness conducted the first study of conformity. The experiment was ambiguous as there was no right or wrong answer. The study focused on the participants' estimates on the number of beans in a bottle. Firstly, Jenness asked his participants to individually estimate the number of beans. He then gathered the group and got them to examine the contents. Finally, the researcher once again asked individuals for an estimate and observed that nearly all the individuals changed their original estimates to be closer to the group estimate, therefore showing a level of conformity.

Solomon Asch tested conformity at Swarthmore College in 1951 by putting a participant in a group of people whose task was to match line lengths. Each individual was expected to announce which of three lines was the closest in length to a reference line. But the participant was placed in a group of actors, who were all told to give the correct answer twice then switch to each saying the same incorrect answer. Asch wanted to see whether the participant would conform and start to give the wrong answer as well, knowing that he would otherwise be a single outlier.

Solomon Asch 's (1951) conformity experiment is the study of people adapting their behaviours in order to follow the social normalities. This experiment entails a group of people who are actors and know about the experiment, and one person who is unknowing of the experiment, which are all in the same room. The group is shown a pair of cards; card A has a line on the card, and card B has three lines varying in length on the card, the similarities of the lines are obvious. The group individually, saying out loud picks one of the three lines on card B that matches the length of the line on card A. Everybody picks the correct line, this happens for a few rounds, then when shown another pair of cards the first actor chooses the wrong line on card B. The rest of the actors choose the same line the first actor chose, this tests to see if the unknowing participant will choose the same answer as the group (McLeod, 2008). The person who is unknowing of the

The Solomon Asch’s Conformity Study is an experiment where a standard line is shown to an audience along with three other lines: one will be longer, one will be shorter, one will be the exact same line as the standard. The goal is to identify which is the same line- A, B, or C- and the answer was always obvious. The task is simple, but a person will be the only real participant in the room while the seven others are confederates who were pretending to be participants and who were trying to use social pressure to get the participant to conform with the majority group. For example, if the real answer was A, the confederates would try to throw off the real participant by saying the answer is B. With the majority saying B is the correct answer, the real participant would agree with them, even knowing the answer is wrong because everyone else didn’t say A. The experiment was tested on 50 male students from Swarthmore College, and on average, about 32% of the participants conformed to the incorrect answer with the majority.

The first example of conformity is in the story “The Sociology of the Leopard Man”, written by Logan Feyes. Leopard Man is a nonconformist who takes a break from society and expresses himself freely in the wild. An example of him being a nonconformist is, (page 1, Logan Feyes) “Tom Leppard, now in his 60’s spends most of his days in a small cabin in the Scottish Wilderness. A second example to show his nonconformist is, (Page 1, Logan Feyes) “ He is, according to society a freak.” And the last example is (Page 1, Logan Feyes) “ He doesn’t live for other people reactions,

Humans often act in ways they know to be incorrect or wrong for their own social benefit, often because we fear being different. One example of this is the Asch Conformity Experiment, where 75% of participants would choose the wrong answer on an obvious question just to not stand out from the crowd. After the experiment, all said they felt self-conscious and feared disapproval from the group. Another example is when those in a social group have preferences or choices differ from the rest of the group, they will often conform to the rest of the group's opinion. Nobody wants to be the only person to dislike a certain food or think a certain way, they fear they will be judged negatively for it. As social creatures, we seek for and strive other

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 since his experiments are what pioneered the study of conformity. His study is considered a classic, and most of conformity studies based their study off of Asch’s experiments. Asch made a group of white, male college students study two separated cards that contained lines. One card was the base line, and the subjects had to choose from three similar line on the second card that matched the first card. Asch made his subjects report their findings out loud to the rest of the other subjects in the room. In all of his experiments, all but one subject were confederates, and that was the majority the lone subject had to face. The majority answered incorrectly throughout the experiments as Asch instructed them to do, and he study the experimental subject to see if he will conform to the incorrect majority. In his first experiments, a group of 7 to 9 students was used. The second experiment tested for the number of opposing subjects needed to reach a set rate of conformity. The final experiment tested the rate of conformity of the experimental partner if he had a supporting partner. The results of the first experiment showed that “the misleading majority’s wrong judgment [made the experimental subjects answer incorrectly] in 36.8 percent of the selections” (Asch 20). This was very interesting, and the rest of the other experiments showed different numbers as well. It only took three opposing subjects to make the experimental subject conform at 31.8% and beyond three subjects did not change the rate (Asch 21). A supporting partner made the experimental subject rate of incorrect answers reduced by one-fourth (Asch 22). This led me to look at other studies that explored conformity with different age groups and using females instead of males. For example, Walker and Andrade found in their experiments “that conformity decreases with age from childhood to maturity in the Asch (1956) situation” (371). Children tend to

The term conformity refers to one’s tendency to adjust their thoughts, feelings or behaviours to match those of others in the surrounding area. The experiment that was conducted involves around the concept of conformity, as well as using Solomon Asch’s famous experiment as a basis. By using the basic principles of Asch’s experiment, the researcher was able to create a setting with eight participants, in addition to four confederates, that was similar to the one Asch had created. It was hypothesised that all participants would eventually conform to the action that the confederates performed after a bell sound was made, with the aim being to see if people would conform to an action, that they had no knowledge as to why it was occurring, under

On average, about thirty-two percent of the participants conformed to pick the blatantly wrong answer and over the twelve trials seventy-five percent of the students conformed at least once, and twenty-five didn’t conform at all. Many of the participants afterward admitted they conformed to give the wrong answer because they wanted to avoid being ridiculed and some thought the group really was correct. Is was the results of this experiment that led Asch to conclude that whenever people conform it’s to either fit in or because they believe that since they’re in the minority their conclusion is incorrect. Another influential experiment concerning conformity is the Stanford Prison Experiment. Conducted in 1973, Phillip Zimbardo wanted to determine if brutality in prison systems was due to the

The outcome of the experiment showed that people conform in a group situation and the subject went along with the actors (Henle, 222). There are many good reasons why we should raise concerns about the way we humans form our opinions and the role it can play in society and how it can affect society. The Asch Conformity Experiment was conducted to test the amount of pressure that an individual can take before falling into a trap. The experiment conducted made a significant impact on its subjects and made them think twice about the choice they have made before they could be certain if it was the choice they wanted to make. Apparel and music evolve as we turn into new eras, but social pressure differs from it. Social pressure will always be the same whether it is good or

After collecting the data we can see that in all trials conformity increased when the all 18 participants were placed in a their small group environments of 6 . In trial 1 conformity increased by 33.33%, the range went from 3 to 2, in trial 2 conformity increased by 50% the range went from 2 to 1, trial 3 conformity increased by 75%, the range went from 4 to 1. From the results we can state that when individuals are placed with confederates they will most likely conform the most. Research has shown that when looking into normative social influence, people have a basic need to 'fit into the group' , the group doesn't have to be important, people just have a need to be accepted and this encourages people to conform to a certain behaviour to be accepted. Moreover.

This experiment found that when a group of two other people refused to obey the conditions of the experiment, then the third person would most likely do the same.  It was found that, “The presence of others who are seen to disobey the authority figure reduces the level of obedience to 10%” (McLeod 588). A similar finding is noted in Solomon Asch’s “Opinions and Social Pressure”, where it was found that when someone is among their peers, they are more likely to conform to the group opinion. Asch acknowledges that social pressure plays a large role because the individual “must declare his judgments in public, before a majority which has also stated its position publicly” (Asch 599). This confirms the idea that an individual is more likely to conform when they are being judged by their

Conformity is a social influence in where we tend to change our beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes to align them with group norms. (Conformity & Obedience, n.d) In 1932, Jenness was the first psychologist to study the psychological force of conformity, and his experiment was based on group conformity and how a majority decision can influence an individual’s rational thought. (S, McLeod. 2007) The psychological force of conformity is powerful, whether it is obvious social pressure or subconscious influence. Conformity can be a good or bad influence depending on the situation, and though conformity can affect all ages, it is mostly seen in adolescence. Everybody has experienced conformity at one point in their life,

So Dr. Asch asked, did the people who gave in to the group do so knowing that their answers was wrong? Or did the social pressure actually change their perceptions?. To answer the question I believe it was social pressure that changed their perceptions, I believe that these participants were influenced by their fellow peers, which encouraged them to follow their peers and changed their thoughts and reality of the real answer. The articles goes on speaking about conformity and a new study that was being researched on perception. “The new study tried to find an answer by using functional M.R.I scanners that can peer into the working brain, a technology not available to Dr. Asch.” As stated in the article, the researcher found that social conformity showed up in the brain as activity in regions that are entirely devoted to perception. And our independent judgment was found in our emotional activity in the brain, this is significant because it makes sense that the conformity would associate itself with the area of the brain that deal with perception. Because as I said before conformity is rules and standards made by society, people can change and shape our perception in a very significant way. But it takes our emotions to stand up against that group and have our own independent judgment. Now In this new research, they used 32 volunteers and informed them that they’ll be in the M.R.I scanner. They were asking to rotate images of three-dimensional objects to