Asch Conformity Experiment — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00An experiment is not a public opinion,
2. 0:02Paul. It examines behavior under the
3. 0:05pressure of social forces as the
4. 0:06experiment of Solomon Asch reveals. The
5. 0:09experiment you'll be taking part in
6. 0:10today involves the perception of lengths
7. 0:13of lines.
8. 0:14As you can see here, I have a number of
9. 0:16cards. And on each card, there are
10. 0:18several lines.
11. 0:19Your task is a very simple one. You're
12. 0:21to look at the line on the left and
13. 0:23determine which of the three lines on
14. 0:25the right is equal to it in length. All
15. 0:27right, we'll proceed in this order.
16. 0:28You'll give your answer
17. 0:29Only one of the people in the group is a
18. 0:31real subject, the fifth person with the
19. 0:33white t-shirt. The others are
20. 0:35confederates of the experimenter and
21. 0:36have been told to give wrong answers on
22. 0:38some of the trials.
23. 0:40The experiment begins uneventfully as
24. 0:42subjects give their judgments. Two.
25. 0:45Two.
26. 0:46Two.
27. 0:47Two. Two.
28. 0:50Three.
29. 0:52Three.
30. 0:53Three.
31. 0:55Three. Three.
32. 0:56the third trial, something happens. Two.
33. 1:00Two.
34. 1:02Two.
35. 1:05Two.
36. 1:08Two.
37. 1:09The subject denies the evidence of his
38. 1:11own eyes and yields to group influence.
39. 1:15One.
40. 1:16Asch found subjects went along with the
41. 1:17group on 37% of the critical trials.
42. 1:21One.
43. 1:21But he found through interviews that
44. 1:23they went along with the group for
45. 1:24different reasons.
46. 1:26One.
47. 1:28One. They must be right. There are four
48. 1:30of them and one of me. One.
49. 1:33This subject's yielding is based on a
50. 1:35distortion of his judgment. He genuinely
51. 1:37believes that the group is correct.
52. 1:41One.
53. 1:43One.
54. 1:45One.
55. 1:46Two.
56. 1:48One.
57. 1:51Two.
58. 1:54Two.
59. 1:56Two.
60. 1:57I know they're wrong, but why should I
61. 1:58make waves? Two.
62. 2:01In this case, the subject knows he is
63. 2:02right, but goes along to avoid the
64. 2:04discomfort of disagreeing with the
65. 2:06group. Here, the distortion is at the
66. 2:08level of his response. Two.
67. 2:12Two.
68. 2:13Two.
69. 2:15Two.
70. 2:16In the previous experiment, the naive
71. 2:18subject stood alone against the group.
72. 2:21In this variation, Asch gave the naive
73. 2:23subject a partner, here seated in the
74. 2:25third position, who also gives the
75. 2:27correct response.
76. 2:29One.
77. 2:32One.
78. 2:33Two.
79. 2:36One.
80. 2:38Um
81. 2:39two.
82. 2:40With a partner, yielding drops to only
83. 2:425% of the critical trials compared to
84. 2:4437% without a partner.
85. 2:47Although subjects report warmth and good
86. 2:49feeling toward the partner, they
87. 2:50typically deny that he played a role in
88. 2:52their own independence.
89. 2:55The partnership variation shows that
90. 2:57much of the power of the group came not
91. 2:59merely from its numbers, but from the
92. 3:01unanimity of its opposition.
93. 3:03When that unanimity is punctured, the
94. 3:05group's power is greatly reduced.
95. 3:09Sometimes we go along with the group
96. 3:10because what they say convinces us they
97. 3:12are right. This is called informational
98. 3:15conformity.
99. 3:16But sometimes we conform because we are
100. 3:18apprehensive that the group will
101. 3:19disapprove if we are deviant. This is
102. 3:22called normative conformity.
103. 3:24The strength of the normative factor is
104. 3:26shown in another variation carried out
105. 3:28by Asch.
106. 3:30In this variation, the subject is told
107. 3:32that because he had arrived late, he
108. 3:34would have to write his answers.
109. 3:36Subjects in this private response
110. 3:38experiment are exposed to the same
111. 3:39amount of misleading information as
112. 3:41other subjects, but they are immune from
113. 3:43any possible criticism by the group.
114. 3:45One.
115. 3:46One.
116. 3:48One.
117. 3:49And this enormously reduces the pressure
118. 3:51to conform. Conformity drops by 2/3.
119. 3:56Asch's experiment is a classic. It
120. 3:58reveals how people will deny what they
121. 4:00see and submit to group pressure.
122. 4:03It allows us not only to observe
123. 4:04conformity, but to study the conditions
124. 4:07that increase or reduce its occurrence.