Asch Conformity Experiment

Dr. Philip Zimbardo: Okay I wanna give
you a test of your visually acuity.

Your sensitivity to
differences in line lengths.

So I'm going to show you a standard,
and then I'll show three comparison lines.

One is going to be bigger,
one is going to be shorter,

and one is going to be
the same size as the standard.

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

Seems like a simple judgement,
you always get it right.

But now,
before you give your answer,

there are going to be a half dozen
to ten other people, like you, in the room,

and they're going to give
their answers first.

An amazing thing happens,
one after another,

they say the line that you see as shorter,
is the same as the standard.

Shorter, shorter, shorter, shorter
they don't say shorter,

they just say B, B, B, and so forth.

Now it's your turn.
You know B is the wrong answer.

But what do you say?
In this study done by Solomon Asch,

classic study of group conformity.
The majority of people gave in.

Gave in on most of the critical trials,
to agree with, to say publicly,

that they agreed with the majority.

This study is one of the
first classic studies

on the power of the group.

As long as there are three or more people
who agree among themselves

that reality is not the
way you see it,

in many cases,
you give in to see the world in their way.

Let's look at that study.

Experiment Conductor:
The experiment you will be taking

part in today involves the
perception of lengths of lines.

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

and on each there are several lines.

Your task is a very simple one:

you are to look at the line on the left
and determine which of the three lines

on the right is equal to it in length.

Alright, we'll proceed in this order,
you will give your answers-

Narrator: Only one of the people
in the group is a real subject,

the fifth person
with a white tee-shirt.

The others are confederates
of the experimenter,

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

The experiment begins uneventfully
as subjects give their judgements

Male Subjects:
Two, two, two, two, two.

Three, three, three, three.

But on the third trial, something happens.

Two, two, two, uh two.

The subject denies the evidence
of his own eyes and yields to group influence.

Asch found subjects went along with
the group on 37% of the critical trials.

But he found through interviews
that they went along with

the group for different reasons.

Male Subjects:
One, one.

Male #1: They must be right,
there are four of them and one of me.

One.

Narrator: This subject's yielding is based
on a distortion of his judgement.

He genuinely believes
that the group is correct.

Male Subjects:
One. One. One. Two.

One. Two. Two. Two.

Male #1: I know they're wrong,
but why should I make waves?

Narrator: In this case,
the subject knows he is right,

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

Here, the distortion
is at the level of his response.

Male Subjects:
Two, Two, Two, Two.

Narrator: In the previous experiment,
the naïve subject stood alone against the group.

In this variation,
Asch gave the naïve subject a partner,

here seated in the third position,
who also gives the correct response.

Male Subjects:
One, one, two, one, um two.

Narrator: With a partner,
yielding drops to only five percent

of the critical trials
compared to 37% without a partner.

Although subjects report
warmth and good feeling

toward the partner,
they typically deny that he played

a role in their own independence.

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

not merely from its numbers
but from the unanimity of its opposition.

When that unanimity is punctured,
the group's power is greatly reduced.

Sometimes we go along
with the group because

what they say convinces
us they are right.

This is called
informational conformity.

But sometimes we conform
because we are apprehensive

that the group will
disapprove if we are deviant.

This is called normative conformity.

The strength of the normative factor
is shown in another variation carried out by Asch.

In this variation,
the subject is told that

because he had arrived late,
he would have to write his answers.

Subjects in this private response
experiment are exposed

to the same amount of
misleading information as other subjects,

but they're immune from any
possible criticism by the group.

Male Subjects:
One, one, one-

Narrator: And this enormously reduces
the pressure to conform.

Conformity drops by 2/3.

Asch's experiment is a classic.

It reveals how people
will deny what they see,

and submit to group pressure.

It allows us not
only to observe conformity,

but to study the conditions
that increase or reduce its occurrence.