Conformity and Obedience
Why do we conform? Two basic sources of influence: normative social influence, the need to be liked, accepted by others and Informational influence: need to be correct and to behave in accordance with reality.
Solomon Asch (1956) devised an experiment to see if subjects would conform even if they were uncertain that the group norm was incorrect. In his study he asked subjects to take part in an experiment. They were each asked to match a standard length line with three other lines.
He found that one of the situational factors of conformity is the size of the opposing majority. In a series of studies he varied the number of confederates that gave correct answers from 1 -15. He found that subjects conformed to a group of 3 or 4 as readily as they did to a larger group. Some of the subjects indicated afterward that they assumed the rest of the people were correct and that their own perceptions were wrong. Others knew they were correct but didn't want......
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