Conformity and the Asch Experiments
“Would you say something incorrect just cause everyone else is? What matters more, being right or fitting in?”
— Michael Stevens
The Asch experiments, Salem witch trials, Goth culture — Let me take you through the story of conformity.
Conformity
First of all, how did this topic pique my interest? There was a video I had watched (back when trading cricket Attax cards was still a thing) that got me interested in the concept of Conformity, a video by Michael Stevens, an American educator on Youtube.
What is conformity? Behavior that follows socially accepted conventions or standards, is more simply a desire to fit in.
So, are you a conformist or a non-conformist? Would you be able to stand up to a group of people if they were wrong? Would you stand up to your peers if they were wrong? The classic Indian dad line of — Would you jump off of a cliff if all your friends were doing it?
Well, more than 72 years ago somewhere in Poland, Solomon Asche had right about the same questions, so he decided to do what he does best — a social experiment.
The Asch Experiments
Asch’s conformity experiment was conducted by using 123 college students, ranging in age from 17 to 25, who were told that they would be part of an experiment in visual judgment.
Each participant was put in a group of 6–8 people (confederates) who knew what the actual experiment was and one person who didn’t, all of them were shown a card with a line and then another with three lines on it labeled 1,2, and 3. The participants were then asked to say which line on the second card matched the length of the line on the first card. The ‘real’ participant answered last. At first, as the other participants answered correctly, the unsuspecting real participant would be happy with the correct, obvious answer but as it progressed the set-up participants would purposely give wrong answers and the real participant had two options to either ignore the majority and go with his senses or he could go along with the majority and ignore the obvious fact. The aim was to see whether the real participant would change his answer and respond the same way as the confederates or stick with what his eyes told him.
Asch found that 23% of all subjects successfully withstand this form of social pressure, and 4.8% completely succumb. Nearly 75% of the participants in the conformity experiments went along with the rest of the group at least once. After combining the trials, the results indicated that the participants conformed to the incorrect group approximately one-third of the time.
What does this experiment tell us?
Asch’s experiments aimed to show the power of influence of a group on conformity. The more the number of confederates, the more the tendency to conform.
Conformity can be seen in things as small as laughing along with a group even if you don’t get the joke (the number of times I’ve done this, by zoning out) to bigger things like influencing cultures and bringing about social trials. There is a reason laugh tracks are used by sitcoms and there is a reason the Salem witch trials happened the way that they did.
Salem Witch Trials and the concept of conformity
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. The trials had a sense of the bandwagon effect where the people of Salem would believe in whatever the majority believed in , and when one person was accused of being a witch, everyone would follow suit and follow the majority in accusing the “witch”. This is similar to Asch’s experiments where the real participants would follow the majority even if they were visibly wrong.
A modern contemporary to this would be — Cancel Culture, which started as a movement to talk truth to power and ended up as a frenzy of online witch hunts. It soon became the case where famous people were suddenly accused of something they didn’t do or had said 10 years ago and the crowd would then form into a frenzy to cancel them, even if many people didn’t know everything about what had happened felt the need to conform in canceling the said person.
The Paradox of Goth Culture
Goth is a subculture marked by its emphasis on individualism, tolerance for diversity, and creativity, essentially moving away from the majority. They are characterized by their style of dress and musical sense.
Although Goth culture does not define a specific alternative to the mainstream, it has in itself by not conforming to the majority created a subculture of non-conformity.
Many gothic though argue that goth culture while having some common ideals, it does not have some set standards that need to be followed and it is not a specific alternative to the mainstream but is a space people averse to mainstream find themselves in.
The result of Asch’s experiments is to give an invaluable insight into group behaviors and the effect of social pressure on one’s decisions. Even most religions are part of certain conformity. Conformity is a major social psychological phenomenon affecting cultures, decisions, and communities. As the human race thrives on community, conformity will also be a part of our culture which in itself is harmless except when it manifests itself as the witch trials or maybe jumping off a cliff as your dad would say. So, the need for a balance of individuality and conformity remains.
References
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