Introduction and Methods

Introduction:

            Solomon Asch is one of the most well-known social psychologist in America for his work on the effects of media and people’s base urge to conform. This phenomenon is called normative influence, and it predicts that when in a large group of peers, people are more likely to agree with what they conceive as the popular opinion, even if that opinion is incorrect. Asch tested this with his line match experiment, which became the foundation for conformity research.

            Since then there have been many recreations and similar tests to try and research different aspects of Asch’s broad topic. Researchers have focused on different demographics, such as gender, race, and nationality, as well as changing different facets of the original experiment, like making the entire group participants instead of having confederates with the experiment pretend to know nothing, like the actual participant.

            The focus of this experiment is to compare Asch’s results to results obtained in today’s world of technology and self-expression. Gender and gender-ratios will also be accounted for, but not deeply analyzed in this study. It’s important to see how normative influence has morphed over the years, and how technology and the increased encouragement of individuality affects people’s urge to conform. University students will still be the main demographic, since comparison to Asch’s experiment is the main purpose of this study. This age group is also one of the most affected by this fast-paced era, and college is a period in people’s lives when they are still trying to figure out who they are compared to everyone else.

Methods:

Participants: The participants of this experiment were undergraduates at the University of Iowa. Most had majors in the humanities, and both men and women participated and were accounted for when collecting data. Most came from middle class backgrounds and had healthy social circles, which was necessary for collecting data on conforming in a group setting.

            Procedure: To obtain the required data, participants needed to be in a group setting where normative influence could be cultivated. This atmosphere was created by putting one participant in a group of seven confederates in the experiment. The confederates pretended to be participants, and all were put in a room sitting beside each other, with the participant at the end of the line. Each person was asked to match two colors to each other, with the participant answering last. In the five trials, all the confederates answered with the same wrong answer three times, to see if the participant would conform to the group by saying the same answer. The other two trials were random answers from the confederates, with some answering correct and others answering incorrectly as a control to compare to the other three trials. Answers from the confederates and the participant were recorded, along with gender of the participant and the ratio of genders in the group to control the outside variable.

            Data Analysis: Data was analyzed by comparing the answers of the participant in the random and set answer trials. Gender and gender ratios also came into effect when analyzing the data. All the data was put into one chart for easy access and comparison.