SOLOMON ASCH

Solomon Asch was a noted psychologist in the early 20^th century who pioneered the way of social psychology and is most known for his conformity experiment. One of Asch’s approaches to his studies in psychology suggested that social acts needed to be viewed in terms of their setting.

ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENT

In 1951, Solomon Asch observed the extent to which the social pressure of the majority group would affect an individual. Asch was interested in observing how pressure from a group could lead people to conform. For his experiment, Asch asked seven of the eight participants in each group to answer the questions wrong to see if the other participant’s answers changed to match theirs.

He used 50 male students from Swarthmore College and told them they were participating in a vision test.

He put one participant in a line with seven other participants, who already knew what their answer would be when given the line test. The participant who was being tested sat at the end of the line.

There were 18 trials and the other 7 participants gave the incorrect answer 12 times.

Results: After the seven participants gave the wrong answer 12 times, about ¾ of the participants conformed at least once and about ¼ did not conform.  

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENT

The purpose of the Asch Experiment was to demonstrate the power of conformity in groups. Even when the individual knows that the other people are not correct, they continue to choose the incorrect answer.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES

Modern Therapy - Asch Conformity Experiment Explained

Solomon Asch Biography: The Man Behind the Conformity Experiments

The Asch Conformity Experiments.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT SOLOMON ASCH

Solomon Eliot Asch was born September 14, 1907, in Warsaw, Poland.

Solomon Asch was born in Warsaw but emigrated to the United States in 1920 at the age of 13. 

Solomon attended the College of the City of New York and graduated with his bachelor's degree in 1928. He then went to Columbia University, where he earned his master's degree in 1930 and a PhD in 1932.

Solomon Asch began studying the impact of propaganda and indoctrination while he was a professor at Brooklyn College's psychology department during WWII and Hitler’s reign.