Solomon Asch Experiment (recreated)

Do you fit in with the crowd or do you stand out?

There are three types of social influence. One of them is compliance. The Solomon Asch Study was an experiment that examined the facets of compliance.

We decided to try and re-create this experiment and see how different or the same the participant would respond in modern days. We decided to have the participants say which of the 3 lines was closest to a particular line. There were five confederates and one participant. We first had everyone say their answers out loud. We then had two confederates and the participant write out their answers on paper.

We ran into quite a bit of issues while filming.

#1) We did not film in a professional setting. In the original Solomon Asch experiment, the participants were in a lab. We filmed in a room where anyone was free to walk in. The participants had a clear view of the outside. We were also next to a laundromat room so the setting was informal.

#2) I believe the participant was suspicious. We did randomly ask someone to participate and they agreed. There were five confederates and one participant. Everyone had gathered in the room and knew about the plan before the girl walked in but she came a bit early and I asked if she could give us a couple more minutes. I believe this was a bit suspicious. If the whole situation was a bit more natural, well maybe the results would have been different.

#3) I was clearly filming. Nielle was conducting the experiment but I was clearly seen in the front, holding a camera to capture their responses. Pressure was definitely felt by the participants.We were both wearing regular clothes instead of lab coats or something that places us in a position of authority.

#4) We accidentally mixed up the pictures of the lines so everyone was sort of confused.

#5) It was obvious that the confederates were given the wrong answer. Some of the lines we used were blatantly wrong. If the lines were a bit closer insize, maybe we could have produced different results?

#6) There were not enough lines to see if the participant would get tired of standing out and start conforming. We had about 5 pictures. If we had maybe 10-15 pictures then that could have influenced the participant to conform.

#7) I feel like a factor that influenced the legitimacy of this experiment had to do with how fast everyone answered. The confederates answer one right after the other which felt very staged.

After filming the video, we debriefed everyone about what we were filming. We stated the purpose of the video and what the original Solomon Asch experiment was about. We talked to individual confederates and the participant.

Keep in mind that we had them all say the answer out loud and then had two confederates and one participant write the answer on a paper.

The participant had the same answers as when she stated them out loud.

What was interesting is what Leslie Vasquez had to say. We had her write out her answers and she told us, "Even though I was writing out the answers, I felt pressure."

Nielle and I evaluated the written responses and saw that one of the confederates still wrote the wrong answers even though they were not said out loud while the other confederate wrote the correct answers. This is interesting because there was still some pressure to conform even though the written responses were completely private.

I can say that I was the person filming (Tiffany), and still felt extremely nervous for everyone. There were things that could have been better planned. If we had a larger amount of confederates, that could have influenced the participant's response. It would be interesting to re-create this study in a professional setting, with professional clothing, more pictures of lines, a hidden camera, and more confederates.

Check out our YouTube page for the video!

https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html