In 1951, Solomon Asch conducted an experiment in order to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.
The results of the experiment showed that individuals yielded to peer pressure. The subject’s responses varied depending on the level of majority opinion they were faced with. The more people in the majority group, the quicker the subjects yielded to the public’s opinion.
Solomon Asch used a lab experiment in which 50 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA participated in what was called “vision test”.
During the test, subjects were put in a group, and they were asked to answer questions. All of the other members in the group were actors, hired to give false answers. The results showed that when the majority of the group agrees on an answer, the subject will accept it, even though they know the answer is not correct.
