01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: War Crime, Stanford Prison Experiment, Irving Janis

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Sean Stevens

Document Summary

Solomon asch conducted a classic experiment where subjects were asked to make unambiguous judgments, indicating which of three lines on a card matched an original standard. The task was easy, and 7 subjects were asked one at a time to make their judgments aloud. Only the 6th subject was a real subject, the others gave wrong answers. Asch wanted to see how often people conformed, and gave an answer they knew was wrong, just because everyone else did. He found that on average, they conformed 37% of the time; however there was considerable variability among subjects (some never caved at all). Subsequent studies using a similar protocol found that group size influences conformity, with larger groups increasing conformity. Follow-up studies also showed that group unanimity significantly influences conformity; if just one other person does not go along with the group (a dissenter), subjects are significantly less likely to conform.