Asch's Conformity Study: The Setup
Ever wondered why you might agree with your mates even when you think they're wrong? Asch's 1950s study put this to the test using a surprisingly simple visual task. He recruited 123 male American students for what they thought was a straightforward vision test.
Here's the clever bit: participants sat around a table looking at two cards - one showing a single vertical line, another showing three lines of different lengths (A, B, and C). The task seemed dead easy: just say which of the three lines matched the length of the single line. The correct answer was always obvious.
But there was a massive catch. Out of seven people in each group, only one was a real participant - the rest were confederates (actors working with Asch). The real participant always answered second to last, after hearing everyone else's responses.
Key Point: On 12 out of 18 trials (called critical trials), all the confederates deliberately gave the same wrong answer before the real participant had their turn.
