[toc]Hello! You come back again to the pages of the blog and are now interested in the experiment of Solomon Asha? I can assume that you were brought here by idle curiosity or by searching for an accessible explanation of such words as conformism, group reinforcement or gregarious instinct. Practicing psychologists will be curious to read the notes of a potential client, and inexperienced readers will come in handy with lay terms of the phenomena that we come across a hundred times a day.
Let’s start from afar. You probably stood in the courtyard shop in line and thought over the flattering expressions about the old lady who chose for half an hour which loaf she wants to take, then she began to curse the saleswoman for the fact that she gives bad “bad” bread, turns around and leaves. She went away and praise God! Walk soft.
Strangely enough, but everyone who stood in line and wanted to buy bread, for some reason refused to purchase or asked to see the bread and bakery product closer. And thought crept in your mind, and maybe the old lady has the experience? Maybe it is really something wrong with a loaf?
Where is the conformism and experiment of Asha, what general attitude does marasmus have to all this? Yes, it has a direct bearing on it! Granny can be with marasmus, but the bread was normal. Just the grandmother created the factoid, that the bread was spoiled. Here we have every second person doubting as a result. You want to call it a gregarious instinct? Well and good. But in 1951, the famous American psychologist Solomon Ash conducted an experiment and proved that the behavior of an individual depends on the behavior of the group in which this individual is located. Granny, in this case, initiated the factoid, that is, influenced the opinion of the group, and each individually succumbed to the erroneous impression of the majority.
Gregarious instinct or Planned Conspiracy?
In Asha’s group, there was neither a grandmother nor a bread loaf, quite, in the opinion of Asha himself, adequate people participated in the experiment. A group of students was invited to check their eyesight. On the part of Asha, this was a complete fake, since no one was going to check the sight of students. A group of those who needed an ophthalmologist’s consultation broke up and formed new groups. They made the following way: a group of Asha’s assistants and one, not dedicated to the essence of what is happening.
for free
To test the view, it was suggested to look at the two images in turn. On the first there was one vertically arranged line. On the second – three, but of different length. The members of the Asha group had to decide which of the three corresponded to the length of the line depicted on the first card. The fake eyeglass-wearers gave false answers deliberately. The one who was not aware of what was happening, had to answer the latter. Do you think the real participants could determine the length of the line or listen to the opinions of others and obey the essentially erroneous opinion of the crowd?
It was required to give correct answers to eighteen questions from the testees. That is, to compare eighteen cards. Each next time the instructions were changed and there was one who was told to choose the right pair of cards. The less the level of provocation in the form of incorrect answers became, the more often the testees chose the correct pair of cards and lines.
pallid statistics, obtained as a result of the Asha experiment states that three-quarters (75%) of the testees were victims of the gregarious instinct, that is, they obeyed the opinion of the crowd.
In the event that the participants in the group’s experiment were instructed to give different answers, the percentage of errors to the correct answers fell three to four times. Depending on the radicality of the third opinion and the variational combinations of correct-wrong answers, the relative share of errors decreased to 9%.
Asha experiment and conformism, where is the link?
At the conclusion of his experiment, Solomon Ash presented the world with a publication describing the influence of conformism on the group. In simple words, as a result of the Asha experiment, it was proved that changes in the behavior or opinion of the individual can arise due to the real or imaginary external influence exerted by another person or group of people. In everyday life, this phenomenon is also called time-serving. Why stand up for your point of view? If the majority opinion at least does not cause negative reaction, condemnation and criticism, then it is correct!? Why defend your point of view, pant and prove that you are right? It is easier to agree with the crowd, and in time, to accept the false for the truth yourself.
We can only guess what purpose Ash set for himself during the experiment but forewarned is forearmed. The social phenomenon of the group is used in the process of consciousness formation. The media in all possible forms is the clearest example of where the instruments of influence on the psyche are not neglected. Do not even go for bread, because grandmothers in yards are lesser evil than the daily idiot box through which “right” thoughts, phrases and decisions are imposed on us. This is already a derivative of conformism and elements of behaviorism, and in psychology, simply group reinforcement. All good, everyone is happy and agree? Then I will not object!
Use your head, do not be afraid to defend your opinion, without fighting, of course, and train your brain so that it is always ready to adequately assess the situation. BrainApps is an online simulator for the brain, with which you can train and develop memory, attention, logic, acquire new ways of thinking and even stimulate creativity. And what else is needed to keep the head working while standing in line for a loaf among old people who simply do not have anybody to talk to? Train your brains and not become a crowd!
