Individuals who are part of a society are subject to the influence that it exerts on them, this is what is known as social pressure. What are the consequences? That people alter their behavior, their way of thinking and even other types of aspects that are part of themselves, such as their values or principles. That is, an attitude of conformity is adopted, through which what is well considered by the masses is accepted. Something that happens constantly and which Polish psychologist Solomon Asch decided to delve into in greater depth. For this he used a series of research and experiments.
Psychologist Alex Ortega explains how the phenomenon of conformity has been studied within Psychology. Some of the previous works observed how individuals, especially when faced with stimuli characterized by a certain ambiguity, chose to use the majority opinion. However, Asch wanted to go further and experiment around objective physical stimuli, as Alex Ortega points out. This is how Asch's experiment was developed, and he had to create his own line of research.
The works of the psychologist Solomon Asch can be divided into two large blocks composed of what was his first experiment and the ones that followed it. Alex Ortega speaks of an “original experiment” when referring to Asch's first foray. What was done was to determine a single study subject, who would be part of a group made up of collaborators of the researcher himself, posing as participants in the experiment.
The system proposed by Asch was very simple. Individuals were presented with a sheet with three horizontal bars of different sizes. And they just had to point out which one was the highest. The subject responded correctly to the first tests, like the rest of the group. However, at a certain point, the covert collaborators had to start pointing to the wrong bar. In order to observe what the subject's response was and whether he was overwhelmed by the pressure of the group even when facing an objective stimulus.
The result was that, indeed, the subject of the experiment began to change his opinions and submit to the opinions expressed by the group. He expressed his agreement by pointing to a bar, which had been chosen by the rest, when, from an objective point of view, it was observed that it was not the highest.
After this experiment, Solomon Asch developed similar ones, with certain modifications and variations. One of the most interesting was in which he was added to a collaborating subject with a new role: that of always giving the correct answers. In these cases, the experimental subjects considerably reduced their conformity when they realized that they were not the only ones who thought differently from the rest.
