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Opinions and social pressure

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Opinions and social pressure
Asch, S.E. (1955, November). Opinions and social pressure. Scientific American, 193, 31-35

How we can be independent in our opinions especially in public? If our opinion is completely different from a group of people are we strong enough to keep the same opinion? This situation can happen to anybody especially to the younger people. I remember when I was at elementary school If the teacher asked something and most of the answers was same I usually changed my response to that same answer. Because I think that most of the kids may be right and I didn’t want to be different. It happened to me several times when I was kid. And it made me upset that why I wasn’t that brave to be against the others answers and talk about mine. It was so hard to stand up for my opinion.
This is what Solomon Asch a social psychologist presents an experiment in the 1950. He wants to discover how much the social pressure can affects the human opinion. The result shows the fact that 25% of the subject were completely independent and didn’t conform. Those who comply had two reasons: Some of them believe that most group members give truly accurate answers; some of them did not want to be different than the others. The unpleasantness of standing alone can make a majority opinion seem more appealing than sticking to one’s own beliefs.
We might not realize it, but social pressure is a huge force that can cause serious damage if it found in the wrong hands. And I think no matter in what age or position we are, we should question everything before believing it to make sure that’s right and be able to have an opinion of our own. We’d better be strong enough to talk about our opinions and have some proof for it.
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