Ash’s Conformity Experiment

[robiulhasan]

This famous experiment of the 1950s best illustrates to what extent individuals are influenced by others in terms of their thinking and decision making.

For the experiment, an individual was sat with a group and was asked to choose the shortest stick out of a few. There was a clear difference between the sticks’ lengths and a clear answer, howe cell phone number database ver, the group deliberately chose the wrong answer. The experiment found that 36.8% of individuals conformed to the group, saying the wrong answer. This shows the power groups have on the individual’s decision making.


Reasons for conforming
There are two main reasons why some people conform. The first is the normative social influence, where the individual conforms to avoid social punishment or obtain social reward. In other words, to be perceived as normal and a part of the group. The second is informational conforming, where the individual was genuinely convinced the group was right and his original thinking was wrong.

While the experiment shows customers shifting their decisions from an obvious answer to the wrong answer because of social pressures, imagine the power of groups and society when the answer is unclear and the individual is hesitant.

Even more convincing, no?