1. Test of Visual Acuity
Visual acuity can be tested by measuring your sensitivity to differences in line lengths
I will show you a standard
I will show you three (3) comparison lines
Your job is to determine which comparison line is the same length as the standard line

6. Next group of participants please!
Same experiment, just with a new group of participants
The lines may be arranged somewhat differently this time
Your job is still to determine which line matches the standard

13. Congratulations! You just participated in the Asch Experiment!
If you were the last one to reply, did you ever provide an answer that was different from everyone else? Why or why not?
How did you feel when everyone else provided an answer that you knew to be wrong?

14. The Asch Experiment
Conducted by psychologist Solomon Asch in the 1950’s
Research question was:
“to what degree would social pressure from a majority group affect a person to conform?”

15. Procedure Lab experiment 50 male college students
Told they were participating in a “vision test”
5-7 subjects in a group
Only 1 is participating in the experiment—others are part of the experiment
After several answers, the fake participants unanimously choose to wrong line
Subject last to answer—does he/she follow the majority or trust his/her own perception?
Control was that some participants answered alone

16. Results
37 of 50 subjects (75%) conformed to answer with the group at least once
Participants committed errors about 70% of the time by following the group’s answers
When answering alone, participant gave the wrong answer less than 1% of the time
It only took a group size of 4 people who agreed about a wrong answer to make a subject conform

17. Results Asked participants, “why did you conform?”
Did not want to seem “peculiar” or ridiculed (called normative influence)
Thought the group was better informed than they were (called informational influence)
A few actually believed the incorrect answer, even though it was obviously wrong!

18. Criticism Study used all male subjects/ all of the same age group
Study lacks population validity
Not certain the results can be generalized to other real-life examples of conformity
Ethical issue of protecting participants from psychological stress
It is a “child of its time”—1950’s was an era of conformity/”do your own thing” philosophy didn’t emerge until 1960’s

19. Extensions of the Research
Further trials changed the procedure (independent variables) to determine which factors influence the level of conformity (dependent variable)
Results—factors increasing conformity:
Group size
Difficulty of the task
Status of the majority group

20. So what? Why is the Asch Experiment important?
Helps Social Change
Hurts Social Change
If people are willing to commit change because it seems like the socially responsible thing to do, then pressure to conform is good
Change can be slow and difficult to make if pressure to conform is bad