Asch Conformity Report

The participants seated themselves around a table, these confederates were not known to each other, and most important concept of this experiment relied on the fact all of the participants were working together, but for one. They took turns in a fixed order to call out publicly which of three comparison lines was the same length as a standard line on the left card. In reality only one person was a naive participant who answered second to last, the rest were experimental confederates instructed to give erroneous responses.

The confederates were told ahead of time what their responses would be. The line judgment test had a standard line and three other lines. Out of the three lines, one line was the same length as the standard line, one was shorter and one was longer. The object was to see if the subject would agree with the other individuals. The wrong answer was given by the confederates to see if the subject would conform or stand alone. Out of eighteen trials, twelve of which being “critical trials”, approximately 75% of the subjects conformed at least once and 25% of the subjects never conformed. He found that subjects conformed with the wrong answers of the majority but did not actually agree with their answers. Therefore, individuals conform as a result of reasons such as wanting to fit in with the majority or because they of the assumption that the group has better information as compared to them.

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

the experiment. The confederate ensures that the experiment is going as planned. A part of social

Asch’s experiment was performed in 1951 and is now a classic experiment in psychology. Asch asked individuals a simple question and a high percentage answered correctly. Then Asch placed a participant in a room with seven actors who had predetermined incorrect answers. When asked in front of the group, 75% of people would give incorrect answers clearly because of they conformed to the actors around them. Asch then concluded that it is natural for one to conform to society in order to fit

The experiment was conducted in a small room with a table upon which the props were located in boxes, there was also a TV which played the videos of confederates, and video recording equipment. T-shirts which were worn by the confederates were strategically placed in the room so as to give the impression that the confederate had just been there. Participants were informed that no one other than the person in the video had used the props, and that they were not obligated to perform any imitation that they felt uncomfortable about.

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.

On the first day of the experiment, Jane told her students that blue eyed people were better than brown eyed people. There were many stipulations throughout that day. Blue eyed students got extra recess, were allowed to use the water fountain, and got to go first to lunch. The brown eyed students could not intermingle with the blue eye students, had to use paper cups to get a drink, and were not allowed to get seconds at lunch. At the end of this day, the brown eyed students said that day was the worst day and that they felt horrible. The second day, the roles were reversed and brown eyed students were better than blue eyes students. The same conditions stood, and by the end of the day, the blue eyed students felt just as bad as their brown eyed peers felt the day before. One blue eyed student even remarked that it “Felt like you are chained up.” These students truly went through a day in the life of a

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 Stanley Milgram Obedience experiment is an experiment to replicate Nazis following Hitler’s orders to kill Jews in World War II. Whereas, in this experiment, forty males were recruited to complete this study; they were told it was a memory and learning experiment. In this experiment, every time the subject (learner) answered incorrectly, the recruited male (teacher) would have to shock them. The results were: all forty subjects (teachers) obeyed up to 300 volts, and twenty-five of the so-called teachers, continued to give shocks up to the maximum level of 450 volts.

They will be asked to “hang-out” with one another, including confederates, as they would any ordinary day. The experimental group will also be asked to come into lab where they will be stripped of all personal belongings and put into grey uniforms, such as the ones inmates in jail wear. From there the students in the experimental group will be ridiculed and harassed by confederates for two hours based on their physical attractiveness, athletic ability, and intelligence levels while being given the same gender neutral brain games, sports recreation areas, and unlimited healthy and junk food. This procedure will be repeated three times within a two week period. After each of the sessions the amount of healthy and junk food will be

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

Three individuals were involved in his experiment: The subject of the experiment (volunteer), a confederate pretending to be a volunteer, and

. One of my reference groups would be my teachers in the past throughout my k-12 grade years and my professors now. I want to be successful one day so I work as hard as I possibly can in all of my classes to succeed. My teachers have made such a positive influence on me because they just give us their experiences that are good or bad and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes as them so we can succeed. Some students won’t care but I do because I want to be successful. So, all of the techniques I was taught to get an A in the classroom have all been helpful and help me now in trying to achieve my career. All of the advice and techniques I was given from my teachers and professors are applied to my daily struggles I face now while doing

In the experiment solomon had two boards; one showing three lines of different lengths ( boardA) and another with one line( board B). The group of people were then asked which line on board A looked similar to the one on board B.