Conformity – The Asch Experiment
Conformity is a psychological concept discovered in the 1960s.
Solomon Asch was one of the first to conduct experiments to measure the tendency of humans to conform their response to a task according to what everyone else is doing (McLeod, 2008).
He discovered that the main factor of motivation behind conformity is that humans seek sympathy and from other human beings by sticking to opinion of the group rather than challenging it (Adams, R. N., 1953).
In that moment the individual therefore values the source of many over a single persons opinion.
Investigations show that the need of conformity increases by the number of the group (McLeod, S., 2008).
Consequently the need to conform in a ‘group’ as numerous as mainstream culture is accordingly difficult to resist.
These experiments conclude the ways in which western individuals perform everyday habits and external appearance based on a set of conventions performed in their social environment.
Adams, R. N. (1953) Introduction to Social Psychology. E. Llewellyn Queener. ; The Development of Human Behavior . Richard Dewey, W. J. Humber. et. al. Social Psychology . Solomon E. Asch. American Anthropologist [online]. Volume 55. (5.), [Accessed 11 December 2013].
McLeod, S. (2008) Asch Experiment. SimplyPsychology. Available from: http://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html [Accessed 12 December 2013].
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