Asch, Solomon

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[[Category:Psychologists]]
 
[[Category:Psychologists]]
 
{{epname|Asch, Solomon}}
 
{{epname|Asch, Solomon}}
  
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'''Solomon E. Asch''' (September 14, 1907 - February 20, 1996) was a world-renowned [[United States|American]] [[Gestalt psychology|Gestalt psychologist]] and pioneer in [[social psychology]]. Modern social psychology built on and elaborated his theoretical and experimental approach. In essence his view was that human beings behave according to how they [[perception|perceive]] the world, not how it actually is, and that their perception is as much affected by social influences as physical reality. His 1952 text ''Social Pschology'' was revolutionary in its approach and became the standard text in the field of social psychology for decades. This classic textbook is still relevant today.
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'''Solomon E. Asch''' (September 14, 1907 - February 20, 1996) was a world-renowned [[United States|American]] [[Gestalt psychology|Gestalt psychologist]] and pioneer in [[social psychology]]. Solomon Asch is famous for his research in the field of [[conformity]] including his well known experiments which showed that social pressure can make a person say something that is obviously incorrect.
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{{readout||right|250px|Solomon Asch's experiments uncovered the tendency to [[conformity{{!}}conform]] among many people, but they also revealed the existence of independence in the face of erroneous group opinion.}}
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Solomon Asch is famous for his research in the field of [[conformity]] where his well known experiments showed that social pressure can make a person say something that is obviously incorrect. His findings serve as a warning that the human tendency to conform, which may be valuable in maintaining a harmonious and cohesive [[society]], can be dangerous when the majority opinion is incorrect. Asch remained positive in his belief in the goodness of human beings and our capacity for independence. While his experiments uncovered the tendency to conform among many people they also revealed the existence of independence in the face of erroneous group opinion. His findings also showed that resistance to social pressure is greatly enhanced by the presence of even one dissenter who stands firm in their belief in the truth.  
  
 
== Life ==
 
== Life ==
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===Social Psychology===
 
===Social Psychology===
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With this background, when Asch turned his attention to the impact of social factors on our perception of the world, his approach was groundbreaking. Through his experiments he demonstrated the importance of socially defined reality. Several of these, in particular his conformity experiments, are regarded as seminal studies in the field of [[social psychology]].  
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With this background, when Asch turned his attention to the impact of social factors on our perception of the world his approach was groundbreaking. Through his experiments Asch demonstrated the importance of socially defined reality, or the influence of social factors such as peer pressure on our [[perception]] of the world. His research led to seminal studies in the field of [[social psychology]], in particular his famous experiments on conformity.
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Asch's work was more than a series of experiments, however, as his writings set the direction for this field in the twentieth century. He published his textbook ''Social Psychology'' in 1952. This classic text presented his view of [[psychology]] as a scientific enterprise, using the [[scientific method]]:
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<blockquote>If there must be principles of scientific method, then surely the first to claim our attention is that one should describe phenomena faithfully and allow them to guide the choice of problems and procedures (Asch 1952).</blockquote>
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For Asch, the aim of psychology is to understand the [[human being]], which he recognized to act and think both as an individual and in a group. The relationship between the individual and the social group is complex, as the individual influences how the group behaves and also the group affects the individual's behavior:
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<blockquote>We must see group phenomena as both the product and condition of actions of individuals (Asch 1952).</blockquote>
  
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Asch's work was more than a series of experiments, however, as his writings set the direction for this field in the twentieth century. His text ''Social Pschology'', first published in 1952 and reprinted in 1987, was revolutionary in its approach and became the standard text in the field for decades. It is still relevant to the problems of social psychology today.
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<blockquote>Most social acts have to be understood in their setting, and lose meaning if isolated. No error in thinking about social facts is more serious than the failure to see their place and function (Asch 1952).</blockquote>
  
 
=== Conformity experiments ===
 
=== Conformity experiments ===
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Asch's '''conformity experiments''', which were published in the early 1950s, were a series of studies that starkly demonstrated the power of [[conformity]] in groups. The basic purpose of the experiment was to set physical and social reality at odds—subjects were faced with the evidence of their [[sense]]s being opposed by the opinion of a group of their peers. The basic paradigm involved asking each participant to make simple judgments about [[visual system|visual]] stimuli (that they had no problem answering correctly when alone) after being led to believe that all other members of a viewing group had the same, but incorrect, opinion. The results showed that a significant number of participants conformed to the group on at least one occasion.
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The '''Asch conformity experiments''', which were published in the early 1950s, were a series of studies that starkly demonstrated the power of ''conformity'' in groups. This experiment was conducted with 123 male participants. Each participant was put into a group with 5 to 7 "confederates" (People who knew the true aims of the experiment, but were introduced as participants to the naive "real" participant). The participants were shown a card with a line on it, followed by another card with 3 lines on it labeled a, b, and c. The participants were then asked to say which line matched the line on the first card in length. Each line question was called a "trial." The "real" participant answered last or penultimately. For the first two trials, the subject would feel at ease in the experiment, as he and the other "participants" gave the obvious, correct answer. On the third trial, the confederates would start all giving the same wrong answer. There were 18 trials in total and the confederates answered incorrectly for 12 of them, these 12 were known as the "critical trials." The aim was to see whether the real participant would change his answer and respond in the same way as the confederates, despite it being the wrong answer.
 
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Solomon Asch thought that the majority of people would not conform to something obviously wrong, but the results showed that participants conformed to the majority on 32% of the critical trials. However, 25% of the participants did not conform on any trial.
 
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Solomon Asch is best known for his a series of experiments (1956) on the effects of group pressure on a single individual. In these experiments the situation was so contrived that all members of a group were in collusion except one. E. G., subjects were asked to compare the length of lines as longer or shorter. Those in collusion purposely made incorrect judgments, so the single naive subject was caught between what he or she wanted to report and what was reported by the other members of the group. The general tendency was for the single subject go along with the reports of his peers, despite the fact that his or her own sensory discriminations indicated otherwise. With the increase of the size of the majority group, the pressure toward conformity was strengthened. Conformity did not occur for all subjects. Some maintained their independence in what they judged to be correct,going against the consensus of the majority.
 
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It is a situation to test [[conformity]] to group opinion. A person is asked to state an opinion after being led to believe that all other members of a viewing group have the same, but incorrect, opinion.  
 
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[[Image:Asch experiment.png|thumb|270px|One of the pairs of cards used in the experiment. The card on the left has the reference line and the one on the right shows the three comparison lines.]]
 
[[Image:Asch experiment.png|thumb|270px|One of the pairs of cards used in the experiment. The card on the left has the reference line and the one on the right shows the three comparison lines.]]
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Experiments led by Solomon Asch asked groups of students to participate in a "vision test." In reality, all but one of the participants were confederates of the experimenter, and the study was really about how the remaining student would react to the confederates' behavior.
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In the original experiment (Asch 1955) male college students were gathered in groups of seven to nine participants. Only one was the real subject; all the others were confederates who had been instructed on how to respond. The experimenter told the participants they would be shown a card with a single vertical line, the standard, followed by a card with three vertical lines. Their task was to state out loud which of the three lines was the same length as the standard line. The participants announced their answers one by one in order around the room. On the third trial the confederates unanimously chose the same wrong line, leaving the real subject alone in picking the correct answer. As the experiment continued the subject faced this group pressure to conform to the wrong response for a total of 12 out of 18 trials. To Asch's surprise, a significant number of subjects (over 30 percent) did conform to the obviously wrong response.  
  
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In the basic Asch paradigm, the participants &mdash; the real subject and the confederates &mdash; were all seated in a classroom. They were asked a variety of question about the lines (which line was longer than the other, which lines were the same length, etc.)  The group was told to announce their answers to each question out loud and the confederates always provided their answers before the study participant. The confederates always gave the same answer. They answered a few questions correctly but eventually began providing incorrect responses.
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Individual variation in the subjects was also noted, with some subjects following the majority almost all the time while others (approximately 25 percent) maintained their independence and always gave the correct answer. In an effort to increase this rate independence, or decrease the rate of conformity, the discrepancy between the standard line and the other lines was increased. Surprisingly, even when the difference was as much as seven inches there were still some subjects who yielded to the pressure of the group. Asch regarded this finding with great concern:
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<blockquote>That we have found the tendency to conformity in our society so strong that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct (Asch 1955).</blockquote>
  
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It is important to note that the questions asked in this study were very easy. In a control group, with no pressure to conform to an erroneous view, only one subject out of 35 ever gave an incorrect answer. Solomon Asch hypothesized that the majority of people would not conform to something obviously wrong; however, when surrounded by individuals all voicing an incorrect answer, participants provided incorrect responses on a high proportion of the questions (32%). Seventy-five percent of the participants gave an incorrect answer to at least one question.  
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Further experiments studied the factors that lead to such conformity. It was found that changing the number of confederates giving the wrong responses was significant. When only a single confederate gave the wrong response there was little impact on the subject, but when the group was increased so that three gave the same wrong response the subject conformed to their error at a rate of 32 percent. Further increases in the number of confederates had little impact. On the other hand, reducing the unanimity of the confederates' responses was also important. When one confederate continued to give the correct response the subject's conformity was greatly reduced. This finding illuminates the power that even a small dissenting minority can have (Asch 1956). Interestingly, this finding held whether or not the dissenting confederate gave the correct answer. As long as the dissenting confederate gave an answer that was different from the majority, participants were more likely to give the correct answer.
  
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Variations of the basic paradigm tested how many confederates were necessary to induce conformity, examining the influence of just 1 confederate and as many as 15 confederates. Results indicate that 1 confederate has virtually no influence and 2 confederates have only a small influence. When 3 or more confederates are present, the tendency to conform is relatively stable.
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;Critiques
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Asch's experiments raised at least as many, if not more, questions than they provided answers.
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One question concerns the [[motivation]] of the subjects. Rather than testing conformity, Asch's study may have simply measured an uninterested student's reluctance to engage in [[conflict]] over the answers. This interpretation is supported by the finding that when even one confederate was allowed to give the correct answer, conforming responses dropped significantly.  
  
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The unanimity of the confederates has also been varied. When the confederates are not unanimous in their judgment, even if only 1 confederate voices a different opinion, participants are much more likely to resist the urge to conform than when the confederates all agree. This finding illuminates the power that even a small dissenting minority can have. Interestingly, this finding holds whether or not the dissenting confederate gives the correct answer. As long as the dissenting confederate gives an answer that is different from the majority, participants are more likely to give the correct answer.
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A meta-analysis of conformity studies following Asch's paradigm reported that measures of conformity are not consistent. For example, they found that conformity among Americans has declined since the 1950s. Analysis of studies in other countries suggested that cultural variables, in particular the country's rating of the value of individualism versus collectivism, was significantly related to the conformity of its citizens (Bond and Smith 1996).
  
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One difference between the ''Asch conformity experiments'' and the ''Milgram experiment'' as carried out by [[Stanley Milgram]] (also famous in [[social psychology]]) is that the subjects of these studies [[attribution theory|attributed]] their performance to their own misjudgment and "poor eyesight," while those in the Milgram experiment blamed the experimenter in explaining their behavior. Conformity may be much less salient than authority pressure.
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Asch's experiments did not distinguish between behavioral acquiescence and actual change in [[perception]]. His subjects were interviewed at the end of the experiment and a variety of reasons were given. Some reported that they followed the majority opinion so as not to spoil the results, or to fit in with the group. Several of those who conformed to the majority response [[attribution theory|attributed]] their performance to their own misjudgment and "poor eyesight." A 2005 study by Berns and colleagues using functional [[Magnetic Resonance Imaging|MRI]] scanners showed that social conformity engages regions of the [[brain]] devoted to spatial awareness (Berns et al 2005). In other words, experimental subjects in their study who gave in to group pressure actually saw things that way. Conformity in this case was due to a change in perception rather than [[consciousness|conscious]] judgment.
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The Asch experiments may provide some vivid empirical evidence relevant to some of the ideas raised in [[George Orwell]]'s ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''.
 
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== Critiques ==
 
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Modern [[social psychology]] built on and elaborated the phenomena and experimental approaches that Asch pioneered in his experiments. But to his distress, the context-oriented perspective that he pioneered has too often been overlooked. "We cannot be true to a fragment of man if we are not true, in at least a rudimentary way, to man himself," he argued (1959, p. 368). He further/ also noted: "One would not often suspect that we were talking of an [[organism]] capable of keeping or betraying [[faith]] with others, in whose [[history]] '''religious beliefs''' have played quite a part, who can cry out for [[justice]]" (1959, p. 367).
 
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A number of critiques have been levelled against Asch's experiment including a question of the motivation of students to be accurate. Rather than testing conformity, Asch's study may have simply measured an uninterested student's reluctance to engage in conflict to get the answer right. Moreover, in Asch's experiments the subjects were not allowed to interact with confederates. When the experiment was conducted in which even one confederate was allowed to give the correct answer, conforming responses dropped significantly. This is consistent with Milgram's later findings of the effect of "role models for defiance" in his classic Obedience Experiment.
 
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Asch's experiment only tested behavioral acquiescence and not attitude change.
 
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A 2005 study (described in [http://www.zainea.com/socialconformity.htm]) using functional M.R.I. scanners showed that social conformity engages regions of the brain devoted to spatial awareness. In other words, experimental subjects who gave in to group pressure actually saw things that way. Conformity was due to a change in perception rather than conscious judgment.
 
  
 
== Legacy ==
 
== Legacy ==
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Solomon Asch has shown how to construct a meaningful [[social psychology]].
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The legacy of Solomon Asch is evident in the field of [[social psychology]] which he helped to define. His pioneering approach, both theoretically and experimentally, established the view that human behavior is not a response to the world as it is but as it is [[perception|perceived]].
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Asch's most famous experiments demonstrated the importance of socially defined reality.
 
  
 
===Social psychology===
 
===Social psychology===
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Solomon Asch's classic textbook, ''Social Psychology'' (1952/1987), offers an eloquent statement of his vision and persuasively presents the human person as complex but researchable, socially situated yet independent.
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The great challenge for [[social psychology]] has been to create a harmonious combination of the rigor of [[natural science]] with the rich complexity of human social life. The greatness of Asch's work lies in how he showed the way to this balanced and productive blend of natural and [[social science]]. On the one hand, Asch was a pioneer of the clever and crucial [[experiment]], of disciplined data collection with an eye toward alternative accounts. On the other hand, he insisted on the fundamental role of context and relations, the richness of the human mind, and the importance of being informed by [[history]], [[culture]], the arts, and human common sense. In contrast to the two dominant ideologies in psychology in his time, [[behaviorism]] and [[psychoanalysis]], Asch assumed that humans were basically rational and decent, and that the social world and social matrix of human life had a level of organization worth of attention in its own right.
  
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The great challenge for [[social psychology]] has been to create a felicious combination of the rigor of [[natural science]] with the rich complexity of human '''social life'''. Asch showed the way to this balanced and productive blend of ''natural and social science''. On the one hand, Asch was a pioneer of the clever and crucial [[experiment]], of disciplined data collection with an eye toward alternative accounts. On the other hand, he insisted on the fundamental role of context and relations, the richness of the '''human mind''', and the importance of being informed by [[history]], [[culture]], '''the arts''', and '''human common sense'''. In contrast to the two dominant ideologies in psychology in his time, [[behaviorism]] and [[psychoanalysis]], Asch assumed that humans were basically rational and decent, and that the social world and '''social matrix''' of human life had a level of organization worth of attention in its own right.
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Asch's ''Social Pschology'', first published in 1952 and reprinted in 1987, was revolutionary in its approach and became the standard text in the field for decades and remains relevant today.
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In his classic text (Asch, 1952/1987), Asch begins with an extended discussion of views of human nature, and later devotes a whole chapter to the problem of how we know of the existence of other minds.
 
  
 
===Influence on other researchers===
 
===Influence on other researchers===
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It was Solomon Asch that inspired the work of the controversial psychologist [[Stanley Milgram]], who had served as Asch's teaching and research assistant at [[Harvard University]], as well as helping him edit a book on conformity, and considered Asch to be the most important scientific influence on his research (Blass, 2004). In his own research Milgram explored the possibility that social pressure had the power to influence something more consequential than the simple line judgments that Asch had used. Milgram's experiments on [[obedience]] to [[authority]] shocked the world.  
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It was Solomon Asch that inspired the work of the controversial psychologist [[Stanley Milgram]]. He served as Asch's teaching and research assistant at [[Harvard University]], as well as helping him edit a book on conformity, and considered Asch to be the most important scientific influence on his research (Blass 2004). In his own research Milgram explored the possibility that social pressure had the power to influence something more consequential than the simple line judgments that Asch had used. Milgram's experiments on [[obedience]] to [[authority]] shocked the world.  
  
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Solomon Asch also cooperated with [[Herman Witkin]] (1916—1979) and inspired many of his ideas on [[cognitive style]]. Witkin was interested in how [[personality]] can be revealed through differences in how people perceive their environment. While Asch studied the impact of the social environment, Witkin focused on the perceptual context. He developed the Embedded Figures Test which identifies an individual's perception when asked to distinguish object figures from the content field, a distracting or confusing background, in which they are set. This instrument distinguishes field-independent from field-dependent cognitive types. Field-independent people are quickly able to find the hidden figures, while field-dependent people have trouble locating simple figures embedded within more complex surroundings.
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Solomon Asch also cooperated with [[Herman Witkin]] (1916—1979) and inspired many of his ideas on [[cognitive style]]. Witkin was interested in how [[personality]] can be revealed through differences in how people [[perception|perceive]] their environment. While Asch studied the impact of the social environment, Witkin focused on the perceptual context. He developed the [[Embedded Figures Test]] which identifies an individual's perception when asked to distinguish object figures from the content field, a distracting or confusing background, in which they are set. This instrument distinguishes field-independent from field-dependent cognitive types. Field-independent people are quickly able to find the hidden figures, while field-dependent people have trouble locating simple figures embedded within more complex surroundings.
  
 
==Major works==
 
==Major works==
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* Asch, S. E. 1951. Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) ''Groups, leadership and men''. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press. ([http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/asch_conform.html summary] Retrieved December 29, 2010.)
 
* Asch, S. E. 1951. Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) ''Groups, leadership and men''. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press. ([http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/asch_conform.html summary] Retrieved December 29, 2010.)
 
* Asch, S. E. [1952] 1987. ''Social Psychology''. New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198521723
 
* Asch, S. E. [1952] 1987. ''Social Psychology''. New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198521723
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* Asch, S. E. 1955. [http://www.panarchy.org/asch/social.pressure.1955.html  Opinions and Social Pressure] ''Scientific American'', 193: 31-35. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
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* Asch, S. E. 1955. Opinions and Social Pressure ''Scientific American'', 193: 31-35.  
 
* Asch, S. E. 1956. Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority. ''Psychological Monographs, 70'' (Whole no. 416).
 
* Asch, S. E. 1956. Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority. ''Psychological Monographs, 70'' (Whole no. 416).
 
* Asch, S. E. 1962. A perspective on social psychology. In Koch, Sigmund (ed.), ''Psychology: A Study of a Science'', 3: 363-383. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
 
* Asch, S. E. 1962. A perspective on social psychology. In Koch, Sigmund (ed.), ''Psychology: A Study of a Science'', 3: 363-383. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
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== References ==
 
== References ==
 
* Benner, David G., and Peter C. Hill (eds). 1999. Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling. Baker Books. ISBN 978-0801021008  
 
* Benner, David G., and Peter C. Hill (eds). 1999. Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling. Baker Books. ISBN 978-0801021008  
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*Berns, Gregory S., Jonathan Chappelow, Caroline F. Zink, Giuseppe Pagnoni, Megan E. Martin-Skurski, and Jim Richards. 2005. [http://www.ccnl.emory.edu/greg/Berns%20Conformity%20final%20printed.pdf Neurobiological Correlates of Social Conformity and Independence During Mental Rotation]. ''Biological Psychiatry'' 58:245–253. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
 
*Blass, Thomas. 2004. ''The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram''. New York, NY: Basic Books. ISBN 0738203998
 
*Blass, Thomas. 2004. ''The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram''. New York, NY: Basic Books. ISBN 0738203998
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* Bond, R., and P. Smith. 1996. Culture and conformity: A meta-analysis of studies using Asch’s (1952b, 1956) line judgment task. ''Psychological Bulletin'', 119, 111-137.
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* Bond, R., and P. Smith. 1996. [http://www.radford.edu/~jaspelme/_private/gradsoc_articles/individualism_collectivism/conformity%20and%20culture.pdf Culture and conformity: A meta-analysis of studies using Asch’s (1952b, 1956) line judgment task]. ''Psychological Bulletin'' 119(1):111-137. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
 
* Ceraso, J., Rock, I., and Gruber H. 1990. On Solomon Asch. In ''The Legacy of Solomon Asch: Essays on Cognition and Social Psychology''. Psychology Press.
 
* Ceraso, J., Rock, I., and Gruber H. 1990. On Solomon Asch. In ''The Legacy of Solomon Asch: Essays on Cognition and Social Psychology''. Psychology Press.
 
* Cherry, Kendra. 2010. [http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/solomon-asch.htm Solomon Asch Biography]. ''Psychology Guide'', About.com, Inc. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
 
* Cherry, Kendra. 2010. [http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/solomon-asch.htm Solomon Asch Biography]. ''Psychology Guide'', About.com, Inc. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
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==External links==
 
==External links==
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All links retrieved February 3, 2023.
 
*[http://scienceaid.co.uk/psychology/social/majority.html Science Aid: Asch experiment] A look at majority influence and Asch's experiment for high school level
 
*[http://scienceaid.co.uk/psychology/social/majority.html Science Aid: Asch experiment] A look at majority influence and Asch's experiment for high school level
 
*[http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/normative_social_influence.htm Changingminds: Normative social influence]
 
*[http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/normative_social_influence.htm Changingminds: Normative social influence]
 
*[http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/social/asch_conformity.html Age of the sage summary of one Asch experiment]
 
*[http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/social/asch_conformity.html Age of the sage summary of one Asch experiment]
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*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/mindchangers1.shtml BBC Radio: Mind changers: Solomon Asch]
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*[http://aschcenter.blogs.brynmawr.edu/about/ The Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict] Bryn Mawr College
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*[http://www.zainea.com/socialconformity.htm What Other People Say May Change What You See]
 
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* [http://aschcenter.blogs.brynmawr.edu/about/ The Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict] Bryn Mawr College
 
 
*[http://www.swarthmore.edu/x11354.xml Solomon Asch Award] Swarthmore College
 
*[http://www.swarthmore.edu/x11354.xml Solomon Asch Award] Swarthmore College
 
*[http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v42/n23/asch.html Death of Solomon Asch] University of Pennsylvania ''Almanac''
 
*[http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v42/n23/asch.html Death of Solomon Asch] University of Pennsylvania ''Almanac''
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*[http://www3.uakron.edu/ahap/finding_aids/asch_solomon.pdf Finding Aid for Solomon Asch] Archives of the History of American Psychology, The University of Akron
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{{Credits|Solomon_Asch|210536615|Asch_conformity_experiments|217023929}}
 
{{Credits|Solomon_Asch|210536615|Asch_conformity_experiments|217023929}}

Latest revision as of 15:10, 27 April 2023

Solomon E. Asch (September 14, 1907 - February 20, 1996) was a world-renowned American Gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology. Modern social psychology built on and elaborated his theoretical and experimental approach. In essence his view was that human beings behave according to how they perceive the world, not how it actually is, and that their perception is as much affected by social influences as physical reality. His 1952 text Social Pschology was revolutionary in its approach and became the standard text in the field of social psychology for decades. This classic textbook is still relevant today.

Did you know?
Solomon Asch's experiments uncovered the tendency to conform among many people, but they also revealed the existence of independence in the face of erroneous group opinion.

Solomon Asch is famous for his research in the field of conformity where his well known experiments showed that social pressure can make a person say something that is obviously incorrect. His findings serve as a warning that the human tendency to conform, which may be valuable in maintaining a harmonious and cohesive society, can be dangerous when the majority opinion is incorrect. Asch remained positive in his belief in the goodness of human beings and our capacity for independence. While his experiments uncovered the tendency to conform among many people they also revealed the existence of independence in the face of erroneous group opinion. His findings also showed that resistance to social pressure is greatly enhanced by the presence of even one dissenter who stands firm in their belief in the truth.

Life

Solomon Asch was born on September 14, 1907 in Warsaw, Poland, which at that time belonged to the Russian Empire. His family moved to the United States in 1920, where they lived in New York City. The young Asch learned English by reading the works of Charles Dickens.

He received his bachelors degree from The College of the City of New York in 1928. Asch went on to study psychology at Columbia University, where he received his master's degree in 1930 and Ph.D. in 1932. His principal mentor at Columbia was the pioneering Gestalt psychologist, Max Wertheimer.

Asch continued to live and work in the New York area for several years. He married his wife, Florence, and their son, Peter, was born while they lived in Brooklyn. Peter became a professor of economics at Rutgers University, where Solomon Asch also taught.

Asch had a distinguished academic career as a psychologist that spanned half a century. After holding a number of teaching positions in New York, including at Brooklyn College and the New School for Social Research, he taught for 19 years at Swarthmore College where he worked with a group of prominent psychologists including Wolfgang Köhler, another key figure in the development Gestalt psychology. He also held visiting posts at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Asch served as professor and director of the Institute for Cognitive Studies at Rutgers University from 1966 to 1972, after which he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as a professor in 1972, remaining there as emeritus professor from 1979.

Asch's research focused on the impact of the social context on our perception and understanding of the world. His most famous studies were on conformity. He recounted an early childhood experience in Poland as the inspiration for this work. Attending a Passover Seder as a young boy he had asked who the extra glass of wine was for and was told the prophet Elijah. He was also told that Elijah would indeed drink the wine. With that expectation, Asch thought he saw the level of the wine drop a little.

He began his research in the 1930s when Adolf Hitler had come to power and social influence, in the form of propaganda and indoctrination, on people's behavior was of great interest. Based on his studies, Asch concluded that propaganda is most effective when ignorance and fear are combined. However, he held the belief that human beings seek truth not falsehood, and that although they can be misled into regrettable actions people will act in a good way when given the appropriate information.

As well as his teaching and research, Asch served as president of the Division of Personality and Social Psychology of the American Psychological Association and as chairman of its Committee on Academic Freedom in 1957. He was also associate editor of the journal Psychological Review from 1957 to 1962.

Asch received many awards including the Nicholas Murray Butler Medal from Columbia University in 1962 and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association in 1967.

Solomon Asch died on February 20, 1996 in Haverford, Pennsylvania at the age of 88. Florence Asch, his wife of years, survived him for six years, dying on March 27, 2002 aged 92.

Work

Solomon Asch began his work as a student and later colleague of Gestalt psychologists. They regarded perception, learning, and cognition as structured wholes rather than the sum of individual components connected by association, and thus were in opposition to the Behaviorist approach. The Gestalt school, however, held in common with Behaviorism the importance of the scientific method, and both rejected the introspective approach and the psychoanalytic school.

Social Psychology

With this background, when Asch turned his attention to the impact of social factors on our perception of the world his approach was groundbreaking. Through his experiments Asch demonstrated the importance of socially defined reality, or the influence of social factors such as peer pressure on our perception of the world. His research led to seminal studies in the field of social psychology, in particular his famous experiments on conformity.

Asch's work was more than a series of experiments, however, as his writings set the direction for this field in the twentieth century. He published his textbook Social Psychology in 1952. This classic text presented his view of psychology as a scientific enterprise, using the scientific method:

If there must be principles of scientific method, then surely the first to claim our attention is that one should describe phenomena faithfully and allow them to guide the choice of problems and procedures (Asch 1952).

For Asch, the aim of psychology is to understand the human being, which he recognized to act and think both as an individual and in a group. The relationship between the individual and the social group is complex, as the individual influences how the group behaves and also the group affects the individual's behavior:

We must see group phenomena as both the product and condition of actions of individuals (Asch 1952).

Most social acts have to be understood in their setting, and lose meaning if isolated. No error in thinking about social facts is more serious than the failure to see their place and function (Asch 1952).

Conformity experiments

Asch's conformity experiments, which were published in the early 1950s, were a series of studies that starkly demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. The basic purpose of the experiment was to set physical and social reality at odds—subjects were faced with the evidence of their senses being opposed by the opinion of a group of their peers. The basic paradigm involved asking each participant to make simple judgments about visual stimuli (that they had no problem answering correctly when alone) after being led to believe that all other members of a viewing group had the same, but incorrect, opinion. The results showed that a significant number of participants conformed to the group on at least one occasion.

One of the pairs of cards used in the experiment. The card on the left has the reference line and the one on the right shows the three comparison lines.

In the original experiment (Asch 1955) male college students were gathered in groups of seven to nine participants. Only one was the real subject; all the others were confederates who had been instructed on how to respond. The experimenter told the participants they would be shown a card with a single vertical line, the standard, followed by a card with three vertical lines. Their task was to state out loud which of the three lines was the same length as the standard line. The participants announced their answers one by one in order around the room. On the third trial the confederates unanimously chose the same wrong line, leaving the real subject alone in picking the correct answer. As the experiment continued the subject faced this group pressure to conform to the wrong response for a total of 12 out of 18 trials. To Asch's surprise, a significant number of subjects (over 30 percent) did conform to the obviously wrong response.

Individual variation in the subjects was also noted, with some subjects following the majority almost all the time while others (approximately 25 percent) maintained their independence and always gave the correct answer. In an effort to increase this rate independence, or decrease the rate of conformity, the discrepancy between the standard line and the other lines was increased. Surprisingly, even when the difference was as much as seven inches there were still some subjects who yielded to the pressure of the group. Asch regarded this finding with great concern:

That we have found the tendency to conformity in our society so strong that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct (Asch 1955).

Further experiments studied the factors that lead to such conformity. It was found that changing the number of confederates giving the wrong responses was significant. When only a single confederate gave the wrong response there was little impact on the subject, but when the group was increased so that three gave the same wrong response the subject conformed to their error at a rate of 32 percent. Further increases in the number of confederates had little impact. On the other hand, reducing the unanimity of the confederates' responses was also important. When one confederate continued to give the correct response the subject's conformity was greatly reduced. This finding illuminates the power that even a small dissenting minority can have (Asch 1956). Interestingly, this finding held whether or not the dissenting confederate gave the correct answer. As long as the dissenting confederate gave an answer that was different from the majority, participants were more likely to give the correct answer.

Critiques

Asch's experiments raised at least as many, if not more, questions than they provided answers. One question concerns the motivation of the subjects. Rather than testing conformity, Asch's study may have simply measured an uninterested student's reluctance to engage in conflict over the answers. This interpretation is supported by the finding that when even one confederate was allowed to give the correct answer, conforming responses dropped significantly.

A meta-analysis of conformity studies following Asch's paradigm reported that measures of conformity are not consistent. For example, they found that conformity among Americans has declined since the 1950s. Analysis of studies in other countries suggested that cultural variables, in particular the country's rating of the value of individualism versus collectivism, was significantly related to the conformity of its citizens (Bond and Smith 1996).

Asch's experiments did not distinguish between behavioral acquiescence and actual change in perception. His subjects were interviewed at the end of the experiment and a variety of reasons were given. Some reported that they followed the majority opinion so as not to spoil the results, or to fit in with the group. Several of those who conformed to the majority response attributed their performance to their own misjudgment and "poor eyesight." A 2005 study by Berns and colleagues using functional MRI scanners showed that social conformity engages regions of the brain devoted to spatial awareness (Berns et al 2005). In other words, experimental subjects in their study who gave in to group pressure actually saw things that way. Conformity in this case was due to a change in perception rather than conscious judgment.

Legacy

The legacy of Solomon Asch is evident in the field of social psychology which he helped to define. His pioneering approach, both theoretically and experimentally, established the view that human behavior is not a response to the world as it is but as it is perceived.

Social psychology

The great challenge for social psychology has been to create a harmonious combination of the rigor of natural science with the rich complexity of human social life. The greatness of Asch's work lies in how he showed the way to this balanced and productive blend of natural and social science. On the one hand, Asch was a pioneer of the clever and crucial experiment, of disciplined data collection with an eye toward alternative accounts. On the other hand, he insisted on the fundamental role of context and relations, the richness of the human mind, and the importance of being informed by history, culture, the arts, and human common sense. In contrast to the two dominant ideologies in psychology in his time, behaviorism and psychoanalysis, Asch assumed that humans were basically rational and decent, and that the social world and social matrix of human life had a level of organization worth of attention in its own right.

Asch's Social Pschology, first published in 1952 and reprinted in 1987, was revolutionary in its approach and became the standard text in the field for decades and remains relevant today.

Influence on other researchers

It was Solomon Asch that inspired the work of the controversial psychologist Stanley Milgram. He served as Asch's teaching and research assistant at Harvard University, as well as helping him edit a book on conformity, and considered Asch to be the most important scientific influence on his research (Blass 2004). In his own research Milgram explored the possibility that social pressure had the power to influence something more consequential than the simple line judgments that Asch had used. Milgram's experiments on obedience to authority shocked the world.

Solomon Asch also cooperated with Herman Witkin (1916—1979) and inspired many of his ideas on cognitive style. Witkin was interested in how personality can be revealed through differences in how people perceive their environment. While Asch studied the impact of the social environment, Witkin focused on the perceptual context. He developed the Embedded Figures Test which identifies an individual's perception when asked to distinguish object figures from the content field, a distracting or confusing background, in which they are set. This instrument distinguishes field-independent from field-dependent cognitive types. Field-independent people are quickly able to find the hidden figures, while field-dependent people have trouble locating simple figures embedded within more complex surroundings.

Major works

  • Asch, S. E. 1946. Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41(3): 258-290. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
  • Asch, S. E. 1951. Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press. (summary Retrieved December 29, 2010.)
  • Asch, S. E. [1952] 1987. Social Psychology. New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198521723
  • Asch, S. E. 1955. Opinions and Social Pressure Scientific American, 193: 31-35.
  • Asch, S. E. 1956. Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs, 70 (Whole no. 416).
  • Asch, S. E. 1962. A perspective on social psychology. In Koch, Sigmund (ed.), Psychology: A Study of a Science, 3: 363-383. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

References
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External links

All links retrieved February 3, 2023.


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