What does willing to call white black mean?
In 1955, Asch famously said: “The tendency to conformity in our society is so strong that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white, black. This is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct.”
The experiments revealed the degree to which a person's own opinions are influenced by those of a group. Asch found that people were willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to conform to the rest of the group.
The Asch effect can be easily seen in children when they have to publicly vote for something. For example, if the teacher asks whether the children would rather have extra recess, no homework, or candy, once a few children vote, the rest will comply and go with the majority.
Asch found that 75% of unaware subjects conformed based on the answers of other participants, even when they knew the answer was wrong. Asch came to the conclusion that in group settings, more people are likely to conform. Asch did find less conformity in his study when participants gave their answers privately.
Sherif made use of the autokinetic effect, a perceptual illusion that occurs when people are asked to concentrate on a stationary point of light in a dark room. Under those circ*mstances, people perceive movement in the light. Some think it moves only a little; others think it moves a lot.
Asch's (1951) study raises ethical issues of informed consent. This is because the participants were told that the experiment was about visual perception rather than majority influence.
The Asch line length study showed that people can be influenced by an interest to assimilate. They may change their beliefs and behaviors in order to fit in with a group.
Expert-Verified Answer
The best definition of the Asch effect among the given options is: influence of the group majority on an individual's judgment. This phenomenon highlights the power of social pressure and the desire to fit in, even when it may lead to inaccurate or irrational decisions.
Asch identified task difficulty as a variable that affects conformity. He found that when he made the line judgement task more difficult, conformity levels increased, as the participant was more likely to believe that the confederates were right.
A strength of Asch's study into conformity is that it was carried out in a lab setting and was carefully controlled. This means that there was good control over extraneous variables, therefore any change in results was due to the change in the independent variable and its effect on the dependent variable.
What did Solomon Asch measure in his study of conformity?
In psychology, the Asch conformity experiments or the Asch paradigm were a series of studies directed by Solomon Asch studying if and how individuals yielded to or defied a majority group and the effect of such influences on beliefs and opinions.
Conformity Examples
People tend to conform to various rules even though some may not seem relevant or make sense. For instance, people pay fines after violating rules and regulations. Another is driving on the left side of the road, which people follow even though they may not understand the relevance.
In Asch's Conformity Experiment, the principle of conformity is examined by placing a subject in a group of confederates who are instructed to give incorrect answers to a series of simple perceptual tasks. The subject is asked to state which line in a group of three lines is the same length as a reference line.
Conformity motivated by deference to authority or fear of punishment is likely to be harmful. When group members conceal critical information from each other in order not to rock the boat, or are willing to deny the evidence of their own senses, the group is at risk of groupthink or extreme polarization.
Using a line judgment task, Asch put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates/stooges. The confederates had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task.
The main difference between sherif's conformity study and asch's conformity study is that asch's study examined situations in which one's own beliefs clearly conflict with those of the group.
Asch's finding was hugely influential, but a key criticism has been his use of confederates who pretended to believe unanimously that a line was a different length than it really was. They might well have behaved in a stilted, unnatural manner.
One weakness of the Asch experiment is that it lacks ecological validity. In Asch's experiment, the participants were required to judge lengths of line, which is a very artificial task and everyday examples of conformity (e.g. peer pressure) do not involve such mundane requests.
Asch found that 75% of participants conformed at least once and gave the incorrect answer as a result of the confederates also giving that answer. The study lacks population validity with a biased sample of 50 men, he was never able to conclude if females conformed in the same way.
Asch's experiment suggested that when participants thought everyone else saw things differently than they did, they conformed to others' judgments rather than their own.
Why do people conform according to Asch and others?
Why do people conform according to Asch? Asch's studies indicated that people conform in their public behavior to avoid appearing deviant. -As the size of an incorrect unanimous majority increases, so does conformity - up to a point. -People conform to perceived social norms when these norms are brought to mind.
Asch concluded that there are two main causes for conformity: people want to be liked by the group or they believe the group is better informed than they are. He found his study results disturbing. To him, they revealed that intelligent, well-educated people would, with very little coaxing, go along with an untruth.
Asch's research on conformity demonstrated the powerful influence of social factors, particularly peer pressure, on our perception of the world. Participants in Asch's experiments often conformed to the group's incorrect judgments, illustrating the impact of social influence on individual behavior.
Variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.
Asch deliberately deceived his participants, saying that they were taking part in a vision test and not an experiment on conformity. Although it is seen as unethical to deceive participants, Asch's experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results.
