PSYC*3170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Solomon Asch
Document Summary
Cults attract new members by providing a seemingly loving environment: conformity as persuasion: in with the crowd. Norms: expectations held by a group of people about what behaviours or opinions are right or wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable, appropriate or inappropriate. Once these are understood, we feel pressure to conform to them. In the beginning: early research on conformity effects. Experiment by solomon asch (1956): gathered several college students and conducted visual judgement experiment. Each student had to compare lines on cards, and say out loud in a row, which lines matched in size. 8/9 students planted to give the wrong answer, while one student was unknowingly put with them. Found conformity was common under group pressure: variables related to conformity. Social impact theory: first person you add to a group has the most influence and each additional person has some impact each less than the person added before him or her.
