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group of five to seven “confederates”
(people who were aware of the real
aims of the experiment but were
introduced as fellow participants).
The group was shown one card
with a line on it, followed by
another card with three lines
labeled A, B, and C, and asked
which one of those three lines
was the same length as the line
on the first card.
The room was always organized
so that the subject would give
either the last or the penultimate
answer. Over the course of 18
trials, confederates were instructed
to provide the correct answers
for the first six, but then to give
identical but incorrect answers
for another 12. This was to test
whether or not the subject would
answer correctly or whether he
would match his response to that
of the confederates when all gave
the same—incorrect—answer.
SOLOMON ASCH
In the Asch Paradigm experiment, participants were
given a visual test. They had to decide which of the three
lines on the second card was the same length as the one on
the first card. Each question was called a “trial” and there
were 18 trials in all.
Initially, Asch thought that only a
few of the subjects would comply
with the confederates’ answers.
After all, the task was simple and
the answers obvious; during the
pilot study in which there was no
pressure to yield to an erroneous
group, only three errors were made
out of 720 total trials. The results
of the actual study were surprising.
When surrounded by a group of
people all giving the same
incorrect answer, subjects gave
incorrect answers on almost a
third (32 percent) of the questions;
75 percent of them provided an
incorrect response for at least one
question. One person complied
with the group giving a wrong
answer on 11 out of 12 trials.
Because the task was both simple
and unambiguous, these figures
indicate a high degree of
conformity by the subjects.
However, not a single participantconformed on all critical trials,
and 13 of the 50 participants
(26 percent) never conformed.
The results proved that the
subjects themselves were highly
consistent. Those who broke
away from the group opinion and
provided an independent answer
did not succumb to the majority
even over many trials, while
those who chose to comply with
the majority seemed unable to
break this pattern.Explanations
To get a deeper understanding
of his results, Asch interviewed
his subjects to find out why they
offered incorrect answers. Some
said they wanted to go along
with what they believed to be
the experimenter’s wishes and
avoid upsetting the overall
experiment. A few actually
wondered if they were perhaps
suffering from eye strain or were
seated at a misleading angle.
Some denied that they were
aware of having given incorrect
answers. Eventually, some
admitted to knowing their
answers were incorrect, adding
that they did not want to stand
out or appear different and foolish:
ABC they wanted to fit in.All the yielding subjects
underestimated the frequency
with which they conformed.
Solomon Asch