Opinions and Social Pressure Response
Asch, Solomon E. “Opinions and Social Pressure.” Scientific America. 193.5 (1995): 31-35. Rpt. in Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen.12th ed. New York: Pearson Inc., 2013. 655-659. Print.
McLeod, Saul. “Asch Experiment.” SimplyPsychology.org. Simply Psychology, 2008. Web. 28 August 2014.
Summary: In the article, “Opinions and Social Pressure” by Solomon E. Asch, he states that social pressure from a majority group could influence a person to conform. Asch and his research team wanted to find out how and how much social forces constrain people’s opinions and attitudes. The researchers also wanted to find out whether or not, when confronted with an incorrect answer, individuals would conform to the group or have his own answer. The experiment starts with seven to nine young men seated in a room. The young group of men have been told before the experiment to all agree on the correct answer and continue to say the correct answer, except one person. The last individual has no idea that the others were told to state the incorrect answers the entire time. There are two cards placed in front of the members that consist of four lines, all of different lengths. The card on the left is the line you are comparing the other three lines to on the card on the right. The members would answer which two lines are identical in order from who sat down first to who sat down last. All of the young men continue to give the correct answer. On this set of trials only 1% of the time the subject would disagree with the majority.
To see if the minority would continue to conform, Asch conducted a second trial. During this trial, all of the participants, except one, stated the wrong answer. When the last person answered, the subject quickly changes his answer to the wrong answer. On this set of trials, 36.8% of the time the minority agreed with the incorrect answer. On the third trial, Asch decided to add more people
McLeod, Saul. “Asch Experiment.” SimplyPsychology.org. Simply Psychology, 2008. Web. 28 August 2014.
Summary: In the article, “Opinions and Social Pressure” by Solomon E. Asch, he states that social pressure from a majority group could influence a person to conform. Asch and his research team wanted to find out how and how much social forces constrain people’s opinions and attitudes. The researchers also wanted to find out whether or not, when confronted with an incorrect answer, individuals would conform to the group or have his own answer. The experiment starts with seven to nine young men seated in a room. The young group of men have been told before the experiment to all agree on the correct answer and continue to say the correct answer, except one person. The last individual has no idea that the others were told to state the incorrect answers the entire time. There are two cards placed in front of the members that consist of four lines, all of different lengths. The card on the left is the line you are comparing the other three lines to on the card on the right. The members would answer which two lines are identical in order from who sat down first to who sat down last. All of the young men continue to give the correct answer. On this set of trials only 1% of the time the subject would disagree with the majority.
To see if the minority would continue to conform, Asch conducted a second trial. During this trial, all of the participants, except one, stated the wrong answer. When the last person answered, the subject quickly changes his answer to the wrong answer. On this set of trials, 36.8% of the time the minority agreed with the incorrect answer. On the third trial, Asch decided to add more people