Psychology Experiment on Conformity

This machine, uh, generates electric shocks.

When you press one of the switches all the way down, the learner gets a shock.

When you release it, the shock stops, you see.

Like that.

The switch will remain in this middle position after you've released it to show

you

which switches you've used on the board.

Of course, if you were to press, uh, any one of them again,

the learner would get

another shock.

Neil, you're gonna get a shock. 180 volts.

Ow. I can't stand the pain. Let me out of here.

He can't stand it. I'm not gonna kill that man in there. You hear him hollering?

As I said before, the shocks may be painful,

but they're not dangerous.

Yeah, but he's in there hollering. He can't stand it.

What if something happens to him?

The experiment requires that you continue, teacher.

Yeah, but, uh,

I'm not gonna get that man sick in there.

I mean, he's hollering in there.

You know what I mean? I mean, he's-

Whether the learner likes it or not, we must go on until he's learned all the

word

pairs.

I, I mean, uh, I refuse to take the responsibility of him

getting hurt in there.

I'm not gonna... I mean, he's in there hollering.

It's absolutely essential that you continue, teacher.

There's too many left here. I mean, jeez, he, he gets it wrong here, there's too

many of them left.

I mean, who's gonna take the responsibility

if anything happens to that gentleman?

I'm responsible for anything that happens here. Continue, please.

The Asch experiment is one of psychology's oldest

and most popular

pieces of research.

A volunteer is told that he's taking part in a visual

perception test.

What he doesn't know is that the other participants are actors,

and he's the only

person taking part in the real test, which is actually about group

conformity.

Please begin.

The experiment you'll be taking part in today involves the perception of line

length. Your task will be simply to look at the

line here on the left and

indicate which of the three lines on the right is equal to it in length.

So for example, if you think-

The actors have been told to match the wrong lines.

The volunteer will be monitored to see if he gives the correct answer or if

he goes along with the opinion of the group and gives the wrong answer.

In the first test, the correct answer is two.

Uh, one.

One.

One.

Two.

One.

Once again, the correct answer is two.

Three.

Three.

Three.

Three?

Three.