WEBVTT

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Okay, I wanna give you
a test of your visual acuity.

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Your sensitivity to 
differences in line lengths.

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So I'm gonna show you a standard

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and then I'm gonna show 
you three comparison lines.

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One is gonna be bigger,
one is gonna be shorter,

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and one is gonna be the
same size as the standard.

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Your job is...

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tell me which line, A, B, or C
is the same as the standard.

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Seems like a simple judgement.

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You always get it right.

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But now, before you give your answer,

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there are gonna be

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half dozen to ten other 
people, like you, in the room

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and they're gonna 
give their answers first.

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An amazing thing happens.

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One after another, they say 
the line that you see as shorter

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is the same as the standard.

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Shorter, shorter, shorter, shorter,

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they don't say shorter, they 
just say B, B, B, B. and so forth.

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Now it's your turn.

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You know B is the wrong answer.

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But what do you say?

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In this study done by Solomon Asch,

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a classic study of group conformity,

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the majority of people gave in.

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Gave in on most of the critical trials

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to agree with, to say, publicly

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that they agreed with the majority.

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So this study is one of
the first classic studies

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on the power of a group.

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As long as there's three or more people

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who agree among themselves

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that reality is not the way you see it,

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in many cases, you give in

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to see the world in their way.

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Let's look at that study.

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(male speaker)
The experiment you'll be taking part in

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today involves the 
perception of lengths of lines

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as you can see here,
I have a number of cards

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and on each card there are several lines.

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Your task is a very simple one.

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You're to look at the line on the left

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and determine which of the three lines

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on the right is equal to it in length.

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Alright we'll procede in this order:

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you'll give your answer...

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(male narrator)
Only one of the peope in the group

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is a real subject.

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The fifth person with the white t-shirt.

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The others are 
confederates of the experimenter

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and have been told to give 
wrong answers on some of the trials.

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The experiment begins uneventfully,
as subjects give their judgements.

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Two.

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Two.

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Two.

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Two.

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Two.

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(Subject 1)
Three.

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(Subject 2) 
Three.

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(Subject 3)
Three.

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Three.

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Three.

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(Narrator) 
But on the third trial, something happens.

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(Subject 1)
Two.

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(Subject 2) 
Two.

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(Subject 3) 
Two.

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Two.

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Uh, two.

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(Narrator) 
The subject denies the evidence

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of his own eyes and 
yields to group influence.

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Asch found subjects 
went along with the group

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on 37% of the critical trials.

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But he found, through interviews,

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that they went along with
the group for different reasons.

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One.

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One.

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(thinking)
They must be right.

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There are four of them and one of me.

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One.

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(Narrator) 
This subject's yeilding

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is based on a distortion of his judgement.

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He genuinely believes
that the group is correct.

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One.

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One.

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One.

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Two.

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One.

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(Subject 1) 
Two.

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Two.

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Two.

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(thinking)
I know they're wrong,

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but why should I make waves?

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Two.

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(Narrator) In this case,

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the subject knows he is right,

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but goes along to avoid the 
discomfort of disagreeing with the group.

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Here the distortion is at
the level of his response.

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Two.

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Two.

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Two.

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Two.

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(Narrator)
In the previous experiment,

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the naive subject stood 
alone against the group.

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In this variation, Asch
gave the naive subject

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a partner, here seated
in the third position,

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who also gives the correct response.

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(Subject 1
One.

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One.

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Two.

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One.

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Um, two.

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(Narrator) 
With a partner,

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yielding drops to only 
5% of the critical trials,

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compared to 37% without a partner.

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Although subjects report 
warmth and good feeling

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toward the partner, they typically deny

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that he played a role in
their own independence.

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The partnership variation shows that 
much of the power of the group came,

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not nearly from it's numbers, but
from the uninimity of its opposition.

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When that uninimity is punctured,

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the group's power is greatly reduced.

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Sometimes we go along with a group

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because what they say 
convinces us they are right.

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This is called informational conformity.

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And sometimes, we conform
because we are apprehensive

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that the group will 
disapprove if we are deviant.

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This is called normative conformity.

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The strength of the normative factor

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is shown in another 
variation carried out by Asch.

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In this variation, the subject is told 
that, because he had arrived late,

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he would have to write his answers.

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Subjects in this private
response experiment

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are exposed to the same amount of

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misleading information 
as other subjects,

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but they are immune from any 
possible criticism by the group.

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One.

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One.

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One.

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(Narrator) 
And this enormously reduces

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the pressure to conform.

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Conformity drops by two thirds.

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Asch's experiment is a classic.

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It reveals how people 
will deny what they see

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and submit to group pressure.

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It allows us not only 
to observe conformity,

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but to study the conditions that
increase or reduce it's occurrence.

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