How Did Solomon Asch Conformity Study
Solomon Asch conducted an experiment titled the ‘Asch Conformity Study,’ in which he psychologically tested the certain conditions in which the judgement of an individual is affected by others. Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity; male students were selected to participate in a ‘vision test’ in Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania.
Asch used pairs of cards, and on one pair, three vertical lines of differing lengths were drawn, called the ‘Comparison’ lines. On the other pair, there was a single line, called the ‘Standard’ line, which was equal to one and only one of the comparison lines. Seven to nine of the subjects were ‘Confederates,’ or actors not being tested on, who were instructed to give an answer according to their judgement …show more content…
His results, though, refute his argument, proving that humans are evidently very weak when faced with social pressure, and often conform to the beliefs of others in order to ‘fit in’ society. Asch had reported that a significant minority of 33% of the critical subjects had given the incorrect answer, while in contrast, the errors in judgement of the control group was only 7.4%. In order to test if there was a reliability, other psychologists repeated Asch’s experiments in various parts of the world, attempting to yield consistent results, such as in the University of Kuwait. One error with Asch’s study, though, was that he did not account for all cultures. The Kuwaitis psychologists, thus, attempted to perform the same study to conclude whether or not the conformity found in Asch’s experiment occurred only in western cultures, such as in America and in Europe, or if those in Kuwait would also succumb to social pressures as shown in Asch’s experiment. The study took place in the University of Kuwait, with 40 female and 40 male students as the subjects, all ages ranging from 18 to 24 years old. The results of the replicated investigation resulted in a powerful Asch effect, similar to the original experiment. The judgements of the subjects transformed when presented
Asch used pairs of cards, and on one pair, three vertical lines of differing lengths were drawn, called the ‘Comparison’ lines. On the other pair, there was a single line, called the ‘Standard’ line, which was equal to one and only one of the comparison lines. Seven to nine of the subjects were ‘Confederates,’ or actors not being tested on, who were instructed to give an answer according to their judgement …show more content…
His results, though, refute his argument, proving that humans are evidently very weak when faced with social pressure, and often conform to the beliefs of others in order to ‘fit in’ society. Asch had reported that a significant minority of 33% of the critical subjects had given the incorrect answer, while in contrast, the errors in judgement of the control group was only 7.4%. In order to test if there was a reliability, other psychologists repeated Asch’s experiments in various parts of the world, attempting to yield consistent results, such as in the University of Kuwait. One error with Asch’s study, though, was that he did not account for all cultures. The Kuwaitis psychologists, thus, attempted to perform the same study to conclude whether or not the conformity found in Asch’s experiment occurred only in western cultures, such as in America and in Europe, or if those in Kuwait would also succumb to social pressures as shown in Asch’s experiment. The study took place in the University of Kuwait, with 40 female and 40 male students as the subjects, all ages ranging from 18 to 24 years old. The results of the replicated investigation resulted in a powerful Asch effect, similar to the original experiment. The judgements of the subjects transformed when presented