A Brief About Solomon Asch's Conformity Experiment
Solomon Aschs is one of the leading proponents in the field of social psychology. Solomon Asch's conformity experiment is one of the leading studies and it gives a deep insight about how group conformity works. The Asch experiment is a great endeavour that shows that individuals are often swayed by the majority opinions.
It is also an ethical question about how peer pressure can influence individuals. The Solomon Asch experiment is still quite popular and it is an important subject to understand how human behaviour gets influenced. This experiment was held in reply to the Sheriff's Conformity Experiment which was in the year 1935.
About The Experimental Procedure
The Solomon Asch experiment experiment was a lab experiment and it was carried out by 50 male students. These students came onboard from the Swarthmore College and were a part of the "vision test". The experimental method was set up in a controlled setting where a subject was placed among the confederates. Each of the groups had only one real participant and the others were instructed about how they should respond.
The participants were presented with visual tasks and this involved lines of different lengths. Once done, the participants were asked to state aloud which among the comparison lines matched a standard in length. The task was made simple to create a deception among the participants. The real participant sat at the end of the row and was required to answer at the end.
When the experiment started, all the members were advised to give the right answers. However, after a few rounds, they were instructed to unanimously give wrong answers. There were 18 trials in total and the others started to give wrong answers on the 12th trial. The major aim of Asch was to see if the real participant changed his answer to confirm the view of the majority. The Solomon Asch study gave some really interesting insights into how group conformity works.
Critical Trials
One of the very important parts of the experiment was the "critical trials". There were 18 different trials and confederates gave incorrect responses in 12 of them. These 12 trials were referred to as "critical trials". The purpose of these trials was to see if the subject changed their response and confirmed the norms or if they stuck to their answers.
Findings of the Study
As per the Asch conformity studies, about one-third of the participants who were placed in this situation went along with the confirmed majority. Over the 12 "critical trials", a total of 75% of participants confirmed at least once. However, there were also 25% of participants who did not conform at all.
In the case of the control group where there were no fake participants, only 1% of the members gave a wrong answer. Asch conducted this test with multiple variations of the experiment where he changed the number of confederates as well as the level of consensus among them. There was also a partner in some of the scenarios where they supported the real participant's responses.
Understanding Conformity
When we talk about Solomon Asch's study on conformity, the one word that comes up is "conformity". What do we mean by it? Psychology defines conformity as an individual's tendency to follow the unspoken rules of behaviour of a certain group. It ensures that when we are in a group and there are people around us following a particular routine or proforma, we tend to abide by it. The experiment conducted by Asch hints at how prone individuals are to rebel against a group of social norms that are set up.
Factors that Influence Conformity
The Asch experiment summary also focuses on why the participants chose to go ahead with what others said instead of sticking to their correct answers. Some of these are:
Conformity increases a tad bit if there are more people present.
If the task is more difficult, conformity tends to increase.
If the other members are of higher social status, the conformity increases.
Conformity tends to decrease when people can respond more privately.
It is important to keep in mind that each of these factors are transient and while in some cases these might not be reflective, there are others when it becomes extremely persistent.
Limitations of Solomon Asch's Study on Conformity
Psychologist Solomon Asch is a pertinent name and his study remains extremely important in the field of social psychology to date. However, there are a few pertinent limitations that have been highlighted by individuals.
Biassed
The first and most pointed-out limitation of the Solomon Asch experiment is that it is said to be extremely biased. All the participants of the experiment were male and they belonged to the same age group. The study hence lacks population validity and it cannot be generalised to female or even older groups of people.
Away From Reality
Another very pertinent drawback of the Solomon Asch experiment is that it is drawn away from reality and is not at all pertinent. For example, on an everyday basis, we are not used to judging line lengths. This implies that the study is low on ecological validity and the results are not pertinent to real-life scenarios.
Ethical Considerations
The Asch experiment also falls under consideration particularly because it raises doubt on the ethical treatment of the research participants. The stress and discomfort that was faced by the participants led to many more advancements and ethical considerations for the current scenario and conducting further psychological studies.
Asch psychology continues to be a very important part of social psychology and the significance of the same is par excellence. It is a testament to how the power of social influence can play an important role and change people's decisions even if it contradicts their perspective. Irrespective of the few criticisms, this remains an extremely important part of social psychology and shows how human behaviour can be influenced.
