Social Psychology

The Asch Conformity Experiment
What do you do when you know you're right, but the rest of the group disagrees with you? Do you bow to
group pressure? In a series of famous experiments conducted during the 1950s, psychologist Solomon Asch
demonstrated that people would give the wrong answer on a test in order to fit in with the rest of the group.
In Asch's famous conformity experiments, people were shown a line and then asked to select the line of a
matching length from a group of three. Asch also placed confederates in the group who would intentionally
select the wrong lines.
The results revealed that when other people picked the wrong line, participants were likely to conform and
give the same answers as the rest of the group.
While we might like to believe that we would resist group pressure (especially when we know the group is
wrong), Asch's results revealed that people are surprisingly susceptible to conformity. Not only did Asch's
experiment teach us a great deal about the power of conformity, but it also inspired a host of additional
research on how people conform and obey, including Milgram's infamous obedience experiments.
Stanley Milgram Experiment

The study conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram was designed to measure people’s
willingness to obey authority figures when instructed to perform acts that conflicted with their morals. The
study was based on the premise that humans will inherently take direction from authority figures from very
early in life.
Participants were told they were participating in a study on memory. They were asked to watch another
person (who was actually an actor) do a memory test and were instructed to press a button that gave an
electric shock each time the person got a wrong answer (the actor did not actually receive the shocks, but
pretended as if they did). Participants were told to play the role of “teacher” and administer electric shocks
to “the learner,” who was supposedly in a different room, every time they answered a question incorrectly.
The experimenters asked the participants to keep increasing the shocks and most of them obeyed even
though the individual completing the memory test appeared to be in great pain.
Despite these protests, many participants continued the experiment when the authority figure urged them
to, increasing the voltage after each wrong answer until some eventually administered what would be lethal
electric shocks.
This experiment showed that humans are conditioned to obey authority and will usually do so even if it
goes against their natural morals or common sense.
The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a widely known and controversial social psychology experiment
conducted in 1971 at Stanford University by Professor Philip Zimbardo to investigate how ordinary, healthy
people would react to being made prisoners or prison guards. It has since become a classic social psychology
experiment and is still studied today. However, the experiment has come under considerable criticism in
recent years due to ethical issues.
Twenty-four male college students were recruited for the experiment, which involved them playing the role
of either prisoner or guard. Each group was then allotted 8-hour shifts and treated as if they were in a real
prison situation. The prisoners were kept in the makeshift prison set up in the basement of the Psychology
Department, where the guards were responsible for ensuring the inmates followed prison regulations. The
participants were screened to guarantee they had no mental or physical problems that may have influenced
their behavior.
The experiment concluded that it is possible to change the behavior of individuals when placed in groups,
even when they are not aware they are being observed. The study showed how quickly people will conform
to expected social roles and how easily ‘ordinary’ people can be transformed from ‘good’ to ‘evil.’ Both the
prisoners and guards revealed stereotypical characteristics associated with correctional officers; the
prisoners became emotionally unstable and submissive, whilst the guards became hostile and authoritative.
The Bystander Effect

In 1964, Kitty Genovese was murdered in the neighborhood of Kew Gardens, New York. It was told that
there were up to 38 witnesses and onlookers in the crime scene, but nobody did anything to stop the murder
or call for help.
Such tragedy was the catalyst that inspired social psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley to formulate
the phenomenon called bystander effect or bystander apathy.
Subsequent investigations showed that this story was exaggerated and inaccurate, as there were actually
only about a dozen witnesses, at least two of whom called the police. But the case of Kitty Genovese led to
various studies that aim to shed light on the bystander phenomenon.
Latane and Darley tested bystander intervention in an experimental study. Participants were asked to answer
a questionnaire inside a room, and they would either be alone or with two other participants (who were
actually actors or confederates in the study). Smoke would then come out from under the door. The reaction
time of participants was tested — how long would it take them to report the smoke to the authorities or the
experimenters?
The results showed that participants who were alone in the room reported the smoke faster than participants
who were with two passive others. The study suggests that the more onlookers are present in an emergency
situation, the less likely someone would step up to help, a social phenomenon now called the bystander
effect.
Cognitive Dissonance Experiment

The concept of cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or
behaviors. This conflict produces an inherent feeling of discomfort leading to a change in one of the
attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to minimize or eliminate the discomfort and restore balance.
Cognitive dissonance was first investigated by Leon Festinger, after an observational study of a cult that
believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood. Out of this study was born an intriguing
experiment conducted by Festinger and Carlsmith where participants were asked to perform a series of dull
tasks. Participant’s initial attitudes toward this task were highly negative. They were then paid either $1 or
$20 to tell a participant waiting in the lobby that the tasks were really interesting. Almost all of the
participants agreed to walk into the waiting room and persuade the next participant that the boring
experiment would be fun.
When the participants were later asked to evaluate the experiment, the participants who were paid only $1
rated the tedious task as more fun and enjoyable than the participants who were paid $20 to lie. Being paid
only $1 is not sufficient incentive for lying and so those who were paid $1 experienced dissonance. They
could only overcome that cognitive dissonance by coming to believe that the tasks really were interesting
and enjoyable. Being paid $20 provides a reason for tedious task and there is therefore no dissonance.

Social Psychology

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Social Psychology

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The Asch Conformity Experiment

Stanley Milgram Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Bystander Effect

Cognitive Dissonance Experiment

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