Asch conformity studies (Asch line studies) | Behavior | MCAT | Khan Academy

Summary

The video script delves into Solomon Asch's conformity experiments from the 1950s, highlighting the influence of group behavior on individuals. It discusses the Gestalt psychology background, the experimental setup, and the surprising results where 75% of participants conformed to group answers despite being incorrect. The script explores the concepts of normative and informational social influence and the reasons behind conformity or resistance, raising questions about the study's ecological validity and its implications for understanding social behavior.

Takeaways

• 🔬 Solomon Asch conducted the famous line experiments in the 1950s to study conformity, influenced by Gestalt psychology which emphasizes understanding people in their context.
• 🌐 Asch believed that social acts must be understood within their settings and that isolating them leads to a loss of meaning.
• 🌟 Asch's background, being born in Poland and migrating to the U.S. in his youth, may have influenced his interest in studying conformity, especially during the era of World War II and the Holocaust.
• 🔍 The Asch line experiment involved participants matching a line to one of three comparison lines, with the majority of participants unknowingly being confederates instructed to give incorrect answers.
• 🤔 The experiment revealed that 75% of participants conformed to the incorrect majority answer at least once, and 37% conformed in every trial, challenging the belief in individual certainty.
• 👥 The study showed that conformity could occur without explicit pressure, suggesting the power of perceived group influence on individual decision-making.
• 😅 Participants who conformed often cited fear of ridicule or doubt in their own perceptions, reflecting Normative and Informational Social Influences.
• 🧐 Some participants genuinely believed the majority's incorrect answers were right, indicating a perceptual shift influenced by group consensus.
• 💪 Non-conformers were often confident in their own judgments, suggesting that self-assurance can be a factor in resisting group pressure.
• 🔍 The study has been criticized for its limited participant pool, mostly male undergraduates, raising questions about the generalizability of the findings.
• 🏫 The experiment's ecological validity is questioned, as the artificial setting of matching lines may not accurately reflect real-world conformity scenarios.
• 🤔 Demand characteristics of the study are considered, as participants may have conformed to perceived experimenter expectations rather than genuine group pressure.

Q & A

What were the Asch line experiments about?

The Asch line experiments were about studying conformity, specifically how group behavior can influence the behavior of an individual in a simple perceptual task.

What is the Gestalt psychology perspective that Solomon Asch was part of?

Gestalt psychologists believed that human psychology and behavior should be understood as a whole, taking into account the context and situation, rather than breaking it down into parts.

What was Solomon Asch's background, and how might it have influenced his interest in conformity?

Solomon Asch was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1907 to a Jewish family and migrated to the United States in the 1920s. World events, such as the Holocaust, might have influenced his interest in studying conformity.

What was the basic setup of the Asch line experiment?

Participants were asked to match a target line with one of three comparison lines. The experiment was set up so that other participants, who were actually confederates, would give incorrect answers to observe if the real participant would conform.

What was the surprising result of the Asch line experiments?

Despite the correct answer being obvious, 75 percent of participants conformed and gave the incorrect answer at least once when the group did, and 37 percent conformed every time.

What is meant by 'Normative Social Influence' in the context of the Asch experiments?

Normative Social Influence refers to the phenomenon where individuals alter their behaviors to fit in with a group, often due to a fear of being ridiculed or ostracized.

What is 'Informational Social Influence' as described in the Asch experiments?

Informational Social Influence occurs when individuals change their behavior because they assume others are better informed. In the Asch experiments, participants doubted their own perceptions and conformed to the group's incorrect answers.

What were the reasons given by participants who did not conform in the Asch experiments?

Some participants who did not conform were very confident in their own perceptions and judgments, while others felt doubt and unease but still stuck with their own answers.

What are some of the criticisms or limitations of the Asch line experiments?

Criticisms include the limited demographic of participants (all male undergraduates), the artificiality of the experimental setting, and the potential for demand characteristics influencing participant behavior.

How might the results of the Asch line experiments be different if there was external pressure, such as rewards or punishments?

The likelihood of conformity might increase with external pressure, as the stakes would be higher and participants might be more inclined to conform to avoid negative consequences or gain rewards.

What is the significance of the Asch line experiments in understanding human behavior?

The Asch line experiments highlight the powerful influence of group dynamics on individual decision-making, even in the absence of external pressure, and provide insights into social conformity.

Outlines

00:00

🧐 The Asch Conformity Experiments and Gestalt Psychology

This paragraph introduces the Asch line experiments, a series of conformity studies conducted in the 1950s by Solomon Asch, a Gestalt psychologist. Gestalt psychologists believe in understanding individuals as whole entities within their context. Asch's studies aimed to explore how group behavior influences individuals. The experiment involved participants identifying the line that matched a target line among three comparison lines. Unbeknownst to the participants, the majority of group members were confederates instructed to give incorrect answers, leading to a significant conformity rate. The study revealed that 75% of participants conformed at least once, despite the absence of any tangible pressure or reward, highlighting the powerful influence of group dynamics on individual decision-making.

05:01

🤔 Understanding Conformity: Normative and Informational Social Influences

This paragraph delves into the reasons behind conformity observed in Asch's experiments. Participants who conformed did so due to two types of social influence: Normative and Informational. Normative Social Influence arises from the fear of ridicule and the desire to fit in, leading participants to give incorrect answers to match the group. Informational Social Influence occurs when individuals doubt their own perceptions and assume the group has better information, causing them to change their answers to align with the group's. Some participants genuinely believed the group's answers were correct, indicating a perceptual shift. The paragraph also discusses the reasons of those who did not conform, often rooted in confidence in their own judgments. The limitations of the study, such as the homogeneous participant pool and potential demand characteristics, are also mentioned, questioning the ecological validity of the experiment. The discussion encourages reflection on how external pressures might amplify conformity.

Keywords

💡Conformity

Conformity refers to the act of adjusting one's behavior, attitudes, or beliefs to align with those of a group. In the video, it is the central theme, particularly in the context of the Asch line experiments, where participants often chose to conform to the incorrect answers given by the majority, even when they knew the right answer, demonstrating the power of social influence.

💡Asch Line Experiments

The Asch Line Experiments, conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s, are a series of psychological studies that explored how individuals' perceptions could be influenced by a unanimous majority. In the script, these experiments are described as a 'simple perceptual study' where participants were asked to match a line to a set of comparison lines, revealing the tendency to conform even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary.

💡Gestalt Psychologists

Gestalt psychologists are a group of psychologists who emphasize the significance of the whole over the individual parts in understanding human behavior. Solomon Asch, the experimenter in the video, was part of this group. The Gestalt perspective is relevant to the video's theme as it underscores the importance of context and the environment in shaping behavior, which is evident in the conformity experiments.

💡Normative Social Influence

Normative Social Influence is a type of social influence where individuals change their behavior to fit in with a group to avoid ridicule or rejection. In the script, it is mentioned as one of the reasons participants conformed in the Asch experiments, fearing being ridiculed by the group despite knowing the correct answer.

💡Informational Social Influence

Informational Social Influence occurs when individuals adjust their behavior based on the assumption that others have more accurate or valid information. The script describes how some participants in the Asch experiments conformed because they doubted their own perceptions and believed the group's unanimous incorrect answers must be right.

💡Solomon Asch

Solomon Asch was a psychologist known for his work on conformity. Born in Poland and migrating to the United States, Asch's background and the historical context of the time may have influenced his interest in studying conformity. His quote in the script emphasizes the importance of understanding social acts within their setting, which is directly related to the theme of the video.

💡Confederates

In the context of the Asch experiments, confederates are individuals who are secretly part of the experimental setup and follow the experimenter's instructions. In the script, it is revealed that all participants except one (the real participant) were confederates who were instructed to give incorrect answers, a crucial element in understanding the dynamics of conformity.

💡Ecological Validity

Ecological Validity refers to the extent to which the conditions of a study mimic real-world conditions. The script discusses the limitations of the Asch experiments in terms of ecological validity, noting that judging line lengths in a lab does not directly relate to real-world conformity scenarios.

💡Demand Characteristics

Demand Characteristics are aspects of a study's design that lead participants to change their behavior to match the perceived expectations of the experimenter. The script mentions this concept as a potential issue in the Asch experiments, suggesting that participants may have conformed because they thought it was what the experimenter wanted.

💡Perceptual Level

The term 'Perceptual Level' in the script refers to the level at which individuals process and interpret sensory information. Some participants in the Asch experiments genuinely believed that the majority's answers were correct, indicating a conformity that occurred at a perceptual level rather than a conscious decision.

💡Majority Influence

Majority Influence is the impact a majority group can have on an individual's decision-making. The script describes how 75 percent of participants conformed to the majority's incorrect answers in the Asch experiments, highlighting the powerful effect of majority influence on individual behavior.

Highlights

Solomon Asch conducted the famous Asch line experiments in the 1950s to study conformity.

Asch was a Gestalt psychologist who believed in understanding people as whole entities in context, not just in parts.

Asch's quote emphasizes that social acts must be understood within their setting and not in isolation.

Asch was born in Poland in 1907 and migrated to the US in the 1920s, which may have influenced his interest in conformity.

The Asch line experiment involved participants matching a target line to one of three comparison lines.

In the experiment, participants often conformed and gave the incorrect answer when the majority did, despite knowing the correct one.

75% of participants conformed and gave the incorrect answer at least once, while 37% conformed on all trials.

Other participants were actually confederates instructed to give the wrong answer to test conformity.

There was no external pressure to conform, only perceived pressure from the group.

Participants conformed due to normative social influence, wanting to fit in, and informational social influence, assuming others knew more.

Some participants genuinely believed the majority's answer was correct, even if it was wrong.

Non-conformers were either very confident in their own judgement or doubted but still stuck to their answer.

The study had limited ecological validity, as the lab setting did not fully mimic real-world conformity situations.

Participants may have conformed due to demand characteristics, changing behavior to match experimenter expectations.

Despite methodological issues, the study powerfully demonstrated conformity without external pressure.

The experiment raises questions about how conformity might increase with real-world pressures like rewards or punishments.

Transcripts

- One of the most famous experiments about conformity

are the Asch line experiments,

which were conducted in the 1950s.

And I want to go over a few things about Solomon Asch

who was the experimenter, before I go over the experiments.

First of all, he was part of a group

known as the Gestalt psychologists.

And they believed that it was not possible

to understand human psychology, or human behavior

by breaking it down into parts.

Instead, people must be understood as whole.

They they can't really be understood

without thinking about the times and situations

in which they are a part.

And I've written a quote here from Solomon Asch

from around the time that he conducted these studies,

where he writes, "Most social acts"

"have to be understood in their setting,"

"and lose meaning if isolated."

"Now error in thinking about social facts is more serious"

"than the failure to see their place and function."

And this is something that we need to keep in mind

when we think about not only Solomon Asch

and his conformity experiments,

but also all of the other studies

on conformity and obedience that we will discuss.

Asch was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1907 to a Jewish family.

And migrated to the United States

in the 1920s at the age of 13.

So even though he was not in Poland during World War II,

during the holocaust, we need to think about

how these world events might have influenced

his studies of conformity.

And why he and the other psychologists might have thought

that this was an important topic to study.

When Asch began his studies,

he was primarily interested in understanding

how group behavior can influence

the behavior of the individual.

And, what aspects of this group influence

might be the most important.

So, let's talk about these studies.

And let's say that you are one of the participants

who is signed up to take part in what has been described

as a simple perceptual study.

And say that when you show up for the study,

you find that there are a number of other participants

who are also there to participate with you.

So you all sit down at a long table

and the experimenter starts

to explain the experiment to you.

And it seems incredibly boring.

The experimenter holds up a card with the target line on it,

and three comparison lines.

And the participant needs to figure out

which comparison line matches the target line.

And for each card,

you're supposed to go down the line one by one,

and give your answer.

And the first trial starts,

and everybody gives what is obviously the right answer.

And you give it, too.

The second trial goes along just as the first one.

With the correct answer being just as obvious.

But on the third trial, something really strange happens.

The answer seems just as obvious on this card

as it did the two cards before.

But this time, the first participant gives the wrong answer.

And you think, okay maybe he is just messing with

the experimenter because he's really bored.

But then the second participant gives the same answer.

And the third one.

And on down the line.

And then it gets to you.

What do you say?

The answer that seems to you

to be the obviously correct answer?

Or the seemingly incorrect response given

by the other members of your group?

Do you go with what you think you know?

Or do you go with the majority?

And this strange situation doesn't just happen once,

it happens across a number of trials.

So, what would you do?

When I ask this question in class,

most students tell me that they would not conform.

That they would always give the correct answer,

even when the majority was giving the incorrect one.

And you might be thinking the same thing,

and if I'm being honest with myself,

I would probably say that as well.

But this is actually not what the researchers found.

Even though solitary participants,

so participants answering without a group,

made errors less than one percent of the time,

in the presence of a group,

75 percent of participants conformed

and gave the incorrect answer at least one.

And 37 percent of participants conformed

and gave the incorrect answer every time the group did.

And there are a few things I want to mention

about this study before I go on.

The first is that unbeknownst to you,

unbeknownst to all the individuals

who participated in this study,

all of the other participants who were participating,

so all of the individuals here in blue,

were actually confederates,

meaning that they were actually in

on the experiment the whole time.

And were instructed by the experimenter

to give the incorrect answer.

So, the real purpose of this study was to tell

whether or not the real participant,

so the magenta guy here,

would go along with the group when that group

was making an obviously incorrect decision.

I also want to note that there were 18 trials in total.

So, there were 18 different cards.

And the confederates unanimously answered

incorrectly on 12 of them.

Another really important thing to note about this study

was that there was no obvious pressure to conform,

or not to conform with the group.

There was no prize for conforming.

No punishment for not.

And there was also no prize for doing well on the study.

And no punishment for doing poorly.

They were simply seated

with the other participants at a table.

So, keep in mind that there was

no actual pressure to conform,

only perceived pressure.

So why would that participants of the study

go against their better judgement

and conform with the group?

When they were interviewed following the experiment,

when they were asked why they had conformed,

most participants noted that the answers

that they had given were incorrect.

But they went along with them because they feared

being ridiculed by the group.

And we would refer to this as Normative Social Influence.

Which is altering our behaviors

so that we better fit in with those around us.

So they saw what the correct answer was,

they knew that it was the correct answer,

but they went against it regardless.

Other individuals noted that they conformed

because they doubted their own responses.

They reasoned that if all of the other participants

at the table were giving a certain answer,

then that one must be the correct one.

And we refer to this as Informational Social Influence.

And this is when we change our behavior

because we assume that others are better informed.

That they know more about what's going on than we do.

So they saw what they thought was the correct answer,

but then after hearing the responses of the group,

they changed their minds.

And as a result,

they gave the same answer that the group gave.

So they saw the correct response,

they decided that they themselves were wrong,

and so they deferred to the group's judgement.

But for some participants in the study,

the errors that they made

seemed to be at the perceptual level.

They really, truly believed that the answers

given by the majority were correct.

So, unlike those who deferred to Normative Social Influence

or Informational Social Influence,

these individuals were never consciously aware

that there was any dissonance involved with the judgements.

So they really thought that the group

gave the correct answer.

And they decided that that was the correct one.

And so they gave that answer as well.

But what about those who did not conform?

What were their reasons?

When they were interviewed afterwards,

some of them were really confident.

They were really sure that their perceptions

and their judgements were correct.

Others weren't so confident.

Meaning that there were some participants

who felt a lot of doubt and unease.

But even so, they stuck with their own answers.

And before I moved onto the next topic,

I want to take a moment to talk about

some of the problems with this study.

For example, the participants all came

from the same limited population.

They were all male undergraduates

who were all around the same age,

and the same university culture.

So, the original conformity studies didn't consider the fact

that maybe women or individuals in minority groups,

or individuals from different cultures,

or different age ranges might have reacted differently.

Also, even though the participants thought

that they were coming in

for a study about visual perception,

they did know that they were coming in for a study.

And as someone who has participated in studies before,

as most college students

who have taken psychology courses have,

I probably would have been maybe

a bit suspicious about the study.

Especially when the people who I thought

were the other participants,

started answering questions incorrectly.

I probably would have conformed at least once,

just to see what would happen when I did.

One thing we always look for in studies

is whether or not they have Ecological Validity.

Or whether or not the conditions in the study

mimic the conditions in the real world.

Because if they don't,

if they don't approximate real life,

then we can be really limited

in what conclusions we can draw from it.

Judging the length of a line in a lab

doesn't really relate to how we think

about conformity in the real world.

Another thing that we have to think about

are Demand Characteristics.

Which describes how participants will sometimes

change their behavior in order to match

with the expectations of the experimenter.

So it's possible that the participants

in this original study conformed

not because they felt any group pressures,

but because that's what they thought

the experimenter wanted them to do.

But even with these problems,

there is still a lot that can be learned from this study.

And one thing in particular

that I really want you to think about,

is that this study got 75 percent of individuals

to conform without any external pressure.

And I want you to take a moment to think about

how much more powerful the experiment would have been

if there was pressure.

If there was a reward or a punishment.

Or maybe if your friends or professors,

or teachers were the confederates

instead of just random college students.

Think about whether or not these factors

would increase or decrease the likelihood

that you would conform.