Introducing Conformity and the Asch Experiment

Aim: How do we understand and analyze the results of the Asch Experiment? 

Quick Write: Write about a time when you did something because other people were doing it.  Or write about a time when you made the decision not to follow others. If you can’t think of a time when this happened, write about why you think certain people follow others and certain people don’t.

Warm-up: Watch this groundbreaking Apple commercial from 1984. What are most of the people doing? What happens and why? What message do you think the commercial was trying to convey about Apple computers?

1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial

What is Psychology?

Psychology is the study of the human mind and behavior. Research seeks to understand and explain thought, emotion, and behavior.

What is Social Psychology? 

Social psychology is about understanding individual behavior in a social context (around other people). It looks at how our thoughts, actions, behaviors, attitudes, and feelings are influenced by the real or imagined presence of others.

While the field of social psychology is large, we will be focusing our study for this class on a couple of its main aspects: conformity and obedience.

What is Conformity?

Conformity is the act of doing what everyone else around you is doing. To conform is to “follow the crowd.” Obedience is the act of obeying or following a rule/law. To obey is to follow orders.

Solomon Asch Experiment

As in science, psychologists and social psychologists design experiments to test their theories and hypotheses about individual and group behavior. If you wanted to test the extent to which people conform to a group, how would you design an experiment?

Which of the lines on the right matches the line on the left?

Did you pick Line A?

• This is the sort of task that Asch asked subjects to complete.

• The correct answer is chosen easily by most people in the absence of any experimental manipulation.
• But what if subjects had to give their answers in a group where everyone else had given a wrong answer (e.g., Line B) instead of the correct answer? 

Solomon Asch used confederates in order to find out what subjects would do in groups where others gave the wrong answers. A confederate is a person who acts as if s/he is a subject but who is really following the instructions of the experimenter. Other subjects see the confederate as a “fellow subject” but really the confederate is acting in the way that the researcher has already set up ahead of time.

Subjects were brought into groups where all other subjects were confederates (though the subjects, of course, didn’t know this).  They were asked to complete a series of line tasks similar to the one you just saw in this presentation.

Findings of the Experiment

For beginning trials, confederates picked the correct line but then as the experiment went on, they began to answer incorrectly.

What did Asch’s subjects do?

• Asch’s subjects conformed to giving the wrong answer that the rest of the group gave 1/3 of the time. In other words, the group pressure influenced them to give an answer they probably knew was incorrect.

• 76% of the subjects conformed at least once at some time during the experiment

• This is especially important when one realizes that these are groups of people with whom the subjects have no long lasting relationships.

 Watch a video of a reenactment of the Asch Experiment here.

Read more about the experiment here: 
http://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html

Writing Workshop

Put your answers to the following three questions into a blog post, writing in complete sentences and well-organized paragraphs. Don't forget to give your readers context. Ask a partner to proofread it and then publish!

Question 1: Based on this sentence, write down your own definition of “conformity” or “conform.”
"A lot of girls in school – including Johanna's best friend, Sarah – were dying their hair orange, but Johanna refused to conform, stating that she preferred her natural color."
Question 2: How do you think conformity and obedience are similar? How do you think they are different?
Question 3:
(a) What does the Asch Experiment demonstrate? Explain.
(b) Given what you’ve learned, do you think you're more of a conformist or an individual? How has this benefited you and/or worked against you in the past?
(c) Is conformity good or bad? Consider these situations: driving laws, Nazism, the Holocaust, body image, religion, and clothing styles.
(d) Can you think of other instances where people might conform?

***Don't forget to complete and turn in your "Six Elements of Engagement Daily Self-Tracker" before leaving class.***

What's Due

• Selfie poster
• Letter to me
• First post
• Essential Questions worksheet
• Identity post
• Asch Experiment

****Always check Engrade for your up-to-the-minute progress in this class.****