The Asch Experiment NARRATOR: 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. RESEARCHER: 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-- NARRATOR: 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. PARTICIPANT 1: Uh, one. PARTICIPANT 2: One. PARTICIPANT 3 (REAL PARTICIPANT): One. PARTICIPANT 4: It's two. PARTICIPANT 5: One. NARRATOR: Once again, the correct answer is two. PARTICIPANT 1: Three. PARTICIPANT 2: Three. PARTICIPANT 3: Three. PARTICIPANT 4 (REAL PARTICIPANT): Three. PARTICIPANT 5: Three. PSYCHOLOGIST: The Asch experiment has been repeated many times. And the results are being supported again and again. We will conform to the group. Again we're very social creatures. We're very much aware of what the people around us think. We want to be liked. We don't want to be seen to rock the boat. So we will go along with the group. Even if we don't believe what people are saying, we'll still go along. PARTICIPANT 5: One. PARTICIPANT 4 (REAL PARTICIPANT): One. PARTICIPANT 3: One. PARTICIPANT 2: One. NARRATOR: Group dynamics is one of the most powerful forces in human psychology. PARTICIPANT 4 (REAL PARTICIPANT): Uh, one.