Our Common Nature #7 : Asch's Experiment
Hi everybody, Mary here.
So, here's the seventh post in my Our Common Nature series, with another experiment that prove how much humans are just a bunch of white sheeps ready to follow whatever trend is presented in front of them in order to be accepted by society.
Asch's experiment was an experiment led by Solomon Asch in 1951, in order to see how people conformed themselves to the majority. People were placed in a group and asked to compare a straight line to three others, and among those three, to find the one matching the very first one.
This was supposed to be a vision test already tested on others who didn't have any problem to answer correctly.
What was measured was the naive candidate who was answering one before last ; at the beginning, everyone would answer correctly and the naive candidate would do so as well. But then, all the candidates would answer incorrectly. What was even more absurd is that sometimes, the difference between the line they answered (the wrong one) would be extremely visible (more than five centimeters), and still, for one-third of the people, they decided to follow the majority and give a wrong answer. They would even support their wrong answer when asked to do so.
At the end of the experiment, when asked why they failed so badly, they just "blamed their bad eyesight", rather than the conformism they were the victim of.
When given someone to give the right answer with them, they'd also give the right answer. When this person would leave, they would also go back to the majority with their previous supporter.
Basically, in time of doubt and when confronted to others who don't have the same opinion as you... the best answer, for one third of the people, was to conform to their wrong opinion, I order not to be judged or rejected by their peers.
Trends usually work like this : give an authority or power a rule, and everyone will follow it. Instead of questioning why people are doing things, it's easier to follow the masses and never be seen.
Even anti-conformism is a form of conformism : people and companies also use this technique to sell to people with the appeal of "being different", "being unique", and "go against society". Even anti-conformists have their own rules, in the end : they are against everything that is conformist, and support everything that society disapproves.
What I think of all this ? Just build your own life. Do not follow like a sheep, but try to question trends ; do not try to go against the norms at every cost, but try to understand trends. There are things you like and others you don't ; some of them are trends and others aren't. Just be yourself, even if that sentence is the cheesiest sentence ever, alright ?
Alright, that's it for now, I really hope that you liked this post, please tell me if there are any mistake or inaccuracies as usual and I'll see me you very soon without next post in this series.
And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !!!
This was supposed to be a vision test already tested on others who didn't have any problem to answer correctly.
What was measured was the naive candidate who was answering one before last ; at the beginning, everyone would answer correctly and the naive candidate would do so as well. But then, all the candidates would answer incorrectly. What was even more absurd is that sometimes, the difference between the line they answered (the wrong one) would be extremely visible (more than five centimeters), and still, for one-third of the people, they decided to follow the majority and give a wrong answer. They would even support their wrong answer when asked to do so.
At the end of the experiment, when asked why they failed so badly, they just "blamed their bad eyesight", rather than the conformism they were the victim of.
When given someone to give the right answer with them, they'd also give the right answer. When this person would leave, they would also go back to the majority with their previous supporter.
Basically, in time of doubt and when confronted to others who don't have the same opinion as you... the best answer, for one third of the people, was to conform to their wrong opinion, I order not to be judged or rejected by their peers.
Trends usually work like this : give an authority or power a rule, and everyone will follow it. Instead of questioning why people are doing things, it's easier to follow the masses and never be seen.
Even anti-conformism is a form of conformism : people and companies also use this technique to sell to people with the appeal of "being different", "being unique", and "go against society". Even anti-conformists have their own rules, in the end : they are against everything that is conformist, and support everything that society disapproves.
What I think of all this ? Just build your own life. Do not follow like a sheep, but try to question trends ; do not try to go against the norms at every cost, but try to understand trends. There are things you like and others you don't ; some of them are trends and others aren't. Just be yourself, even if that sentence is the cheesiest sentence ever, alright ?
Alright, that's it for now, I really hope that you liked this post, please tell me if there are any mistake or inaccuracies as usual and I'll see me you very soon without next post in this series.
And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !!!
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