Download Important Experiments in Social Psychology Slide One

Important Experiments in Social Psychology
Slide One:
There are three important experiments to take note of in Social Psychology: the Asch
Line Experiment, the Zimbardo Prison Experiment, and Milgram’s Obedience
Experiment.
Slide Two:
The Asch Line Experiment, depicted here, demonstrated group influence on an
individual’s conformity. The subject was placed in a room with “confederates” -people
who worked for the Asch and were “in on” the experiment - though they appeared to be
other subjects. The subjects were shown cards with sets of lines and were asked to
choose lines that matched. The confederate subjects all chose lines that were incorrect
in order to see if the subject would conform and detract from the answer he knew was
correct.
Asch found that people were more likely to conform in certain situations, such as if a
person is made to feel incompetent, perhaps through ridicule; if the group has at least
three people, thus outnumbering the subject; or if all of the members of the group are
unanimous. Even if just one person answered differently, the subject feels more
comfortable to stick to their own opinion. If people admire the group and want to be
part of it, they are more likely to conform. This is how peer pressure works!
These are just some of the findings of Asch’s experiment. Conformity is influenced by
many factors, but if we look at the factors discussed here, we have a good
understanding of how conformity happens.
Slide Three:
The Zimbardo prison experiment demonstrated how role playing and actions can
influence attitude.
The experiment was designed to randomly assign participants to either play the role of
prisoners or of prison guards. The experiment was run in a simulated prison, and the
participants were on location around the clock. In less than two days, the subjects had
taken on the roles, and it became clear they had almost forgotten it was just an
experiment as it raced toward physical and emotional trauma.
The subjects’ role playing affected their attitudes and caused them to do things they
might not have done outside of the experiment. Zimbardo ended the experiment early,
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after only 6 days, for fear of serious long-term trauma to the subjects. Upon debriefing
the subjects, many were surprised by their actions, and some felt badly for acting as
they did.
Slide Four:
Stanley Milgram’s experiment on obedience is often referred to when looking at
historical violent acts of obedience. Why did the Nazi’s obey Hitler and commit horrible
acts? They were often genuinely nice people who had never done anything like that
before. Milgram showed how the right combination of factors could influence everyday
people into extreme acts of violence.
Milgram had two subjects enter the room. One was a confederate, as we saw in the
Asch experiment, and one was not. The experiment was set up so that the confederate
was always falsely randomized to be hooked up to the electric shock machine. The
subject then was the “teacher” and asked the questions and administered shock for
incorrect answers. The shock console, as seen in the first image, had various levels of
shock available. As the “learner”, or the confederate, missed questions, the shocks
grew increasingly stronger. After a certain amount of shock, the confederate learner
complains loudly of chest pain and eventually stops answering.
63% of the participants in Milgram’s experiment continue on shocking the learner all the
way to the end of the shock console, even though he is unresponsive in the next room!
How could a person do such a thing? You wouldn’t have shocked him…would you?
Milgram settled on four factors that caused obedience to be at its highest: 1. If the
person giving directions appeared to be an authority figure. 2. If the authority figure was
associated with an important institution. 3. If the learner or victim was at a distance.
and 4. If no one else was disobeying the authority figure.
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