Pamela Carvalho

Professor Michael Harris

Sociology 001 4946
4 June 2015
Asch Conformity Experiment Video Reflection Paper

In this video we could see the conformity experiment that Solomon Asch created with the
objective to study social influences and how social forces affect a persons opinion and attitudes.
The conformity study that he subsequently designed tests whether or not one can change
someones judgement of a situation without changing their knowledge or assumptions about the
situation.
Asch used groups of 7-12 people and carried out 18 trials with different participants in
each one, called critical trials. In the groups all but one of them were confederates, which created
a majority influence; which is when an individual or small group of people are influenced by a
larger group and conform to their behaviours, attitudes or views. The actual task that was asked
to be carried out was an incredibly simple perceptual task, to match a line on a card to another
line on another card which had 3 lines on it labelled A, B and C - one of these 3 comparison lines
was the same length as the original line shown on the first line, line X. The point of the
experiment was to investigate whether participants would comply with the majority and say the
answer said by the confederates, which was the wrong answer. The perceptual task was
extremely simple, and was chosen because it was the most efficient way, and meant the
participants were definitely going against their own correct personal opinion to fit in with the

crowd, and not stand out. The group of 7-12 were seated in an order so that the actual participant
was answering last or second to last, so to ensure they were exposed to all of the answers before
their turn.

Aschs results were that 75% of all participants conformed at least once and when there
was no confederates in the group (the control group), only 1% made mistakes in the task, stating
the incorrect line. Furthermore, the overall conformity rate was 37%. About one fourth of
participants never submitted to the majority, whereas some individuals conformed almost every
single time.

When the participants that conformed were interviewed after the experiment, most of
them said that they had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed or thought
peculiar. A few of them said that they really did believe the groups answers were correct.

Apparently - after analyzing and with what we studied about conformity in class - I could
conclude that people conform for two main reasons: they want to fit in with the group (normative
influence) or either because they believe the group is better informed than they are
(informational influence).
Asch experiment definitely proved a point on to show how social approval can influence
in our decisions. We conforme when we want to be accepted and when we feel another person
holds more accurate information than us. People experience large amounts of discomfort and
displeasure when they go against a group, even if they truly believe the group is wrong.

Social Norms can affect a persons daily life. We can see that for example, in societys
depiction of woman and what a woman is supposed to look to be considered attractive, when
there is no actual universal norm for what body type a woman needs to have to be attractive.
Men are also exposed to how they should appear on a daily basis.

This shows how conformity can be quite dangerous and influential sometimes. But by
understanding what conformity is and how we are affected by it is the greatest weapon against its
damages. By acknowledging that humans are programmed to conform in some way, we can
begin to look at things more objectively. Simply being aware of the nature of human interaction
is the greatest way to overcome our conformist tendencies. We must realize our mistakes, take
responsibility for our actions, assert our unique identities and not underestimate our power to go
against the grain when actions and beliefs are unjust. We must be more vigilant of the forces at
work against us that threaten to undermine our individuality as well as accept human nature for
what it is.

Works Cited

Aronson, E., T. Wilson, and R. Akert. Social psychology. 7th. Upper Saddle Rive, NJ: Pearson
Education, Inc., 2010. Print.

Lessing, Doris. Group Minds. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Behrens,
Laurence, and Leonard J. Rosen. 11. New York: Longman, 2010. 301-03. Print.

Zimbardo, Philip G. The Stanford Prison Experiment. Writing and Reading Across the
Curriculum. Behrens, Laurence, and Leonard J. Rosen. 11. New York: Longman, 2010. 301-03.
Print.

Zimbardo, Philip. The lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil. New York:
Random House Inc, 2007. Print.

Andrade, Maria G.; Walker, Michael B. (1996). Conformity in the Asch Task as a Function of
Age. Journal of Social Psychology, 136(3), 367-372.

Perrin, Stephen; Spencer, Christopher P. (1981). Independence or Conformity in the Asch
Experiment as a Reflection of Cultural and Situational Factors. British Journal of Social
Psychology, 20(3), 205-209.