WEBVTT

00:00:00.265 --> 00:00:03.399
Dr. Philip Zimbardo: Okay I wanna give 
you a test of your visually acuity.

00:00:03.832 --> 00:00:06.569
Your sensitivity to 
differences in line lengths.

00:00:07.319 --> 00:00:12.039
So I'm going to show you a standard, 
and then I'll show three comparison lines.

00:00:12.355 --> 00:00:14.875
One is going to be bigger, 
one is going to be shorter,

00:00:15.125 --> 00:00:17.244
and one is going to be 
the same size as the standard.

00:00:17.510 --> 00:00:21.730
Your job is, tell me which line, 
A, B, or C, is the same as the standard.

00:00:24.929 --> 00:00:27.825
Seems like a simple judgement, 
you always get it right.

00:00:28.042 --> 00:00:30.244
But now, 
before you give your answer,

00:00:30.646 --> 00:00:36.126
there are going to be a half dozen 
to ten other people, like you, in the room,

00:00:36.675 --> 00:00:37.994
and they're going to give 
their answers first.

00:00:38.278 --> 00:00:41.130
An amazing thing happens, 
one after another,

00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:44.650
they say the line that you see as shorter,
is the same as the standard.

00:00:45.266 --> 00:00:47.395
Shorter, shorter, shorter, shorter 
they don't say shorter,

00:00:47.395 --> 00:00:50.115
they just say B, B, B, and so forth.

00:00:50.364 --> 00:00:54.883
Now it's your turn. 
You know B is the wrong answer.

00:00:55.568 --> 00:01:01.072
But what do you say? 
In this study done by Solomon Asch,

00:01:01.072 --> 00:01:06.410
classic study of group conformity.
The majority of people gave in.

00:01:07.426 --> 00:01:13.565
Gave in on most of the critical trials,
to agree with, to say publicly,

00:01:13.565 --> 00:01:15.432
that they agreed with the majority.

00:01:15.767 --> 00:01:18.869
This study is one of the 
first classic studies

00:01:18.869 --> 00:01:20.986
on the power of the group.

00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:26.040
As long as there are three or more people 
who agree among themselves

00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.194
that reality is not the 
way you see it,

00:01:29.194 --> 00:01:33.881
in many cases, 
you give in to see the world in their way.

00:01:34.665 --> 00:01:36.131
Let's look at that study.

00:01:37.418 --> 00:01:38.818
Experiment Conductor: 
The experiment you will be taking

00:01:38.818 --> 00:01:42.303
part in today involves the 
perception of lengths of lines.

00:01:42.303 --> 00:01:44.807
As you can see here,
I have a number of cards

00:01:44.807 --> 00:01:47.376
and on each there are several lines.

00:01:47.376 --> 00:01:49.826
Your task is a very simple one:

00:01:49.826 --> 00:01:53.197
you are to look at the line on the left 
and determine which of the three lines

00:01:53.197 --> 00:01:55.179
on the right is equal to it in length.

00:01:55.548 --> 00:01:57.967
Alright, we'll proceed in this order, 
you will give your answers-

00:01:57.967 --> 00:02:00.285
Narrator: Only one of the people 
in the group is a real subject,

00:02:00.285 --> 00:02:02.385
the fifth person 
with a white tee-shirt.

00:02:02.385 --> 00:02:05.238
The others are confederates 
of the experimenter,

00:02:05.238 --> 00:02:07.940
and have been told to give 
wrong answers on some of the trials.

00:02:09.140 --> 00:02:12.443
The experiment begins uneventfully 
as subjects give their judgements

00:02:13.442 --> 00:02:16.762
Male Subjects: 
Two, two, two, two, two.

00:02:18.982 --> 00:02:24.001
Three, three, three, three.

00:02:24.684 --> 00:02:27.136
But on the third trial, something happens.

00:02:27.136 --> 00:02:37.746
Two, two, two, uh two.

00:02:38.312 --> 00:02:42.797
The subject denies the evidence 
of his own eyes and yields to group influence.

00:02:44.399 --> 00:02:48.987
Asch found subjects went along with 
the group on 37% of the critical trials.

00:02:49.669 --> 00:02:52.625
But he found through interviews 
that they went along with

00:02:52.625 --> 00:02:53.990
the group for different reasons.

00:02:54.441 --> 00:02:56.959
Male Subjects: 
One, one.

00:02:57.409 --> 00:02:59.950
Male #1: They must be right, 
there are four of them and one of me.

00:03:00.222 --> 00:03:01.222
One.

00:03:01.494 --> 00:03:04.751
Narrator: This subject's yielding is based 
on a distortion of his judgement.

00:03:05.352 --> 00:03:07.386
He genuinely believes 
that the group is correct.

00:03:08.256 --> 00:03:17.446
Male Subjects:
One. One. One. Two.

00:03:17.730 --> 00:03:25.249
One. Two. Two. Two.

00:03:25.867 --> 00:03:27.985
Male #1: I know they're wrong,
but why should I make waves?

00:03:28.386 --> 00:03:31.672
Narrator: In this case, 
the subject knows he is right,

00:03:31.672 --> 00:03:35.257
but goes along to avoid the 
discomfort of disagreeing with the group.

00:03:35.523 --> 00:03:38.179
Here, the distortion 
is at the level of his response.

00:03:38.511 --> 00:03:45.299
Male Subjects:
Two, Two, Two, Two.

00:03:45.299 --> 00:03:49.704
Narrator: In the previous experiment, 
the naïve subject stood alone against the group.

00:03:49.704 --> 00:03:52.972
In this variation, 
Asch gave the naïve subject a partner,

00:03:52.972 --> 00:03:56.674
here seated in the third position, 
who also gives the correct response.

00:03:56.674 --> 00:04:08.696
Male Subjects:
One, one, two, one, um two.

00:04:08.696 --> 00:04:11.350
Narrator: With a partner, 
yielding drops to only five percent

00:04:11.350 --> 00:04:15.120
of the critical trials 
compared to 37% without a partner.

00:04:15.554 --> 00:04:18.040
Although subjects report 
warmth and good feeling

00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:20.541
toward the partner, 
they typically deny that he played

00:04:20.541 --> 00:04:22.426
a role in their own independence.

00:04:23.375 --> 00:04:27.829
The partnership variation shows 
that much of the power of the group came,

00:04:27.829 --> 00:04:31.349
not merely from its numbers 
but from the unanimity of its opposition.

00:04:32.117 --> 00:04:35.367
When that unanimity is punctured, 
the group's power is greatly reduced.

00:04:37.570 --> 00:04:39.321
Sometimes we go along 
with the group because

00:04:39.321 --> 00:04:42.041
what they say convinces 
us they are right.

00:04:42.041 --> 00:04:44.360
This is called 
informational conformity.

00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:47.729
But sometimes we conform 
because we are apprehensive

00:04:47.729 --> 00:04:50.395
that the group will 
disapprove if we are deviant.

00:04:50.395 --> 00:04:52.638
This is called normative conformity.

00:04:52.638 --> 00:04:57.093
The strength of the normative factor 
is shown in another variation carried out by Asch.

00:04:58.294 --> 00:05:00.947
In this variation, 
the subject is told that

00:05:00.947 --> 00:05:04.015
because he had arrived late, 
he would have to write his answers.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:05.150 --> 00:05:07.803
Subjects in this private response 
experiment are exposed

00:05:07.803 --> 00:05:10.670
to the same amount of 
misleading information as other subjects,

00:05:10.670 --> 00:05:13.607
but they're immune from any 
possible criticism by the group.

00:05:14.441 --> 00:05:17.392
Male Subjects: 
One, one, one-

00:05:17.392 --> 00:05:20.198
Narrator: And this enormously reduces 
the pressure to conform.

00:05:20.881 --> 00:05:22.649
Conformity drops by 2/3.

00:05:24.775 --> 00:05:26.737
Asch's experiment is a classic.

00:05:26.737 --> 00:05:29.237
It reveals how people 
will deny what they see,

00:05:29.237 --> 00:05:30.786
and submit to group pressure.

00:05:31.296 --> 00:05:33.710
It allows us not 
only to observe conformity,

00:05:33.710 --> 00:05:37.728
but to study the conditions 
that increase or reduce its occurrence.