After critically reviewing the list of psychology researches conducted by various known individuals in the field, I selected the Asch Conformity Experiment. The study was conducted in 1951 to prove the hypothesis that a person’s behavior and mannerisms may be swayed by public pressure. The experiment which was conducted by Solomon Asch, aimed at further investigating the aspect of conformity of an individual due to social pressure. Asch intended to clarify matters surrounding the theory which had been proposed earlier in 1935 by Sherif in his Autokinetic Effect Experiment. Solomon Asch argued that Sherif’s (1935) conformity experiment was ambiguous as there was no correct answer to the autokinetic study. The article elaborates on the various principle and scientific methods applied in the research and extensively explains the results of the Asch conformity experiment. Admittedly, just like the proposition of peer pressure, a person’s decision may be biased due to compelling social pressure.
Solomon Asch devised one of the frequently used concepts in social psychology. The experiment which has since become a classic in the field aimed at exploring the extent to which public pressure could influence the decision making and actions of an individual. Unlike his counterpart Sherif, Asch used a rather simple task for the test. In the classic conformity study, Solomon Asch used a line judgment task whose answers were apparent. Thus, in the case that the participant provided an incorrect answer it would be detectable that it was due to the duress they felt (Kyrlitsias & Michael-Grigoriou, 2018). The psychologist wanted to prove to the world that the principle of conformity could change the perspective of people even in cases where the correct judgment is evident. Social pressure has been known to overweigh rationale in many instances as individuals are coerced to go by the majority’s decision despite their knowledge of what is right.
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Asch conducted the study in a laboratory whereby he used 50 male students from Swarthmore College in America. The students were willing participants to a ‘vision test’. Asch initiated the experiment by placing one unacquainted participant in a room of seven other participants who were his confederates (Kyrlitsias & Michael-Grigoriou, 2018). The unsuspecting student would sit amongst the other seven partakers without unaware of their involvement in the experiment. The seven associates would agree specific on the answers prior to the beginning of the test (HeroicImaginationTv, 2012). The cluelessness of the single real participant led him to presume that the rest of the contributors were also merely participating. In the experiment, the eight individuals had to loudly state their responses after the conductor showed them a card with the lines. The participants were shown a line and expected to pick one from three options that were exactly as the target line. The answers to the tests were rather perceptibly plain. The real participant was placed at the end of the row so they would present their answers last.
The experiment included a total of 18 trials among which the confederates gave a wrong answer to 12 trials and the correct response to the remaining 6 trials (HeroicImaginationTv, 2012). The twelve trials were known as the critical trials because they tested whether the real participant would follow the majority rule despite knowing the precise answer. The research also had a control condition where Asch used only real participants without any confederates. Solomon Asch realized the ambiguity in Sherif’s experiment and wanted to eliminate any probabilities of disrepute by conducting a few control conditions for the sole purpose of accuracy (Kyrlitsias & Michael-Grigoriou, 2018). The experimental confederates had been instructed to give erroneous answers to the majority of the questions as the main focus was left on the real participant as he was the center of the whole study.
Solomon Asch recorded the number of times each real participant was influenced by the majority response. It was discovered that about a third of the real contributors agreed with the group of confederates regardless of the fact that the answers provided were wrong. In the 12 critical trials, approximately 75% of the real partakers were swayed by the vast majority’s vote at least once whereas the remaining 25% remained uninfluenced throughout the experiment. The findings imply that in the 18 trials participants provided false answers due to social pressure. The results collected from the control condition studies indicated that only 1% of the actual participants gave the incorrect answer (HeroicImaginationTv, 2012). In one instance, Solomon Asch asked a participant to write their answers down instead of saying them out loud and it was discovered that the individual gave different results from the Confederates.
From the obtained statistics, one may conclude that people refrain from any instances that may result in public humiliation. People are perceived to conform due to two reasons which are the persistent need to fit in with the society and the fallacious belief that the majority can never go wrong (HeroicImaginationTv, 2012). The line judgment research method used was efficient in critically assessing and analyzing the hypothesis of the study as there was a clear answer in each case. Asch refrained from using complex questions which required critical thinking and instead used one that only required visual observance (Kyrlitsias & Michael-Grigoriou, 2018). Critics have, however, argued that Solomon Asch used a biased sample which included all male candidates from a single institution that is Swarthmore College. It is, therefore, uncertain as to whether female students would have behaved similarly to the test as the male students. Hence, Asch’s conformity experiment lacked population validity as there is assurance that both male and female participants respond similarly to conformity.
The ethical debate surrounding the research is still ongoing as the majority of people are of the opinion that the experiment broke certain ethical guidelines. In the study, Solomon Asch lies to real participants who are included in the experiment without their full knowledge of what was being tested. The real partakers were oblivious to the fact that they were the real subjects of the process. Asch told the participants that they would be partaking in a vision test which was not true as the real research was on conformity (Kyrlitsias & Michael-Grigoriou, 2018). Nonetheless, others may posit that Asch’s experiment required the deceptive element as participants’ knowledge on the real study would have distorted the results. Additionally, the real participants were exposed to psychological peril as many of them complained of stress-related symptoms such as migraines and dizziness after the test (HeroicImaginationTv, 2012). Solomon Asch, in his defense, propagated that he had conducted an interview on the participants before the beginning of the test to try and discern their psychological ability to handle pressure. While there are numerous ethical factors that Asch should have considered it is evident that their inclusion would have impacted the outcome of the study.
Human beings are more probable to give in to the demands of society than to uphold their personal perceptions. Solomon Asch was successful in demonstrating the above thesis through the line judgment experiment he conducted. According to Asch, there are two major reasons why people conform to social pressure. One is the need to blend and fit in and the other is fear of humiliation at the realization of being wrong. Therefore, often individuals are swayed with the majority even in cases where the population is conspicuously wrong. The conformity method despite its success is still followed by ethical concerns as orchestrator, Asch, used deception and disregarded the participants’ psychological health. However, it is palpable that the results of the experiment would have been influenced had Solomon Asch stuck to protocol. Hence, humanity is susceptible to conformity due to public pressure.
References
HeroicImaginationTv. (2012, February 20). Asch Conformity Experiment [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDDyT1lDhA
Kyrlitsias, C., & Michael-Grigoriou, D. (2018). Asch conformity experiment using immersive virtual reality. Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds , 29 (5), e1804. doi:10.1002/cav.1804
