Danielle Bérubé ENG 213

Short essay #1

Opinions and Social Pressure

Social Psychologist Solomon E. Asch wrote an article called "Opinions and

Social Pressure," his goal was to discover the influence a group has on an

Individual with a "series of simple but ingenious experiments on the influence of

group pressure upon the individual." Group pressure is common in our society, it

is important that scientist research the process of opinions and the fuction of

social circumstances.

Solomon Asch and his associates wanted to find out how group pressure affects

individuals by experimenting with a group of seven to nine college men. They

compare the length of a single line to three other lines and match it to the single

line. Everone gives their answers in the order of where they are seated. On the

first two trials everyone has a common answer but on the third trial, one person

disagrees with the rest of the group. He continues to give his answers and they

continue to be different from the rest of the group, " he may pause before

announcing his answer and speak in a low voice, or he may smile in an

embarrassed way" affirms Asch. The reason why there is only one person that

disagrees with the rest of the group is because he is the main subject, the others

were told to give the wrong answers to see how the subject would react in

minority, he will either stick to his opinion or succumb to the pressure of the

group. Asch modified his experiment by adding a "truthfull partner", there was

now less presure on the subject, he answered falsely "one forth as often as

under pressure of a unanimous majority. " Asch decided to see what would

happen if the subject lost his partner to the majority, after a few trials, the partner

joined the majority and the answers of the subject increased with errors.

When supported by another person, the target feels less pressured to agree

with the majority, but if alone, he will answer incorrecly. Solomon E. Asch

provides many examples on how social pressure is common in our lives. He

supports each experiment with statistics that prove to us that it is easier forget our

own opinion to follow a group.

Passion