Conformity is the adjusting of opinions, judgments, or behavior so that it matches the opinions, judgments, or behavior of other people. This peaks in early adolescence. This happens for two main reasons; The desire to be liked and accepted by the group (also known as normative social influence), and the desire to be right. If one is not sure, he or she will look to the group for answers (also known as informational social influence).
There have been countless social experiments used to test people’s reactions or lack of reaction to seemingly shocking events going on around them. These social experiments could be a child seemingly being abducted, a college student being bullied, a woman being raped, or infinitely more similar situations. The …show more content…
The experiment was set up so there were five people sitting down at a table, and only one was a volunteer in the experiment, the rest were confidants. The volunteer did not know this and believed all of them were in the same situation. The experimenter showed the volunteer”s” a picture with three lines, and a fourth line on the left. The goal was to have the volunteers identify which line (A, B, or C) matched the line on the left, and the answer was always glaringly obvious. The people would all answer the question, and the true volunteer would answer last. The first couple times, the confidants would answer the question correctly, then after a couple trials, the confidants all answered the question incorrectly, but they all said the same thing. For example, the correct answer is B, all of the confidants would answer C without hesitation. Then the volunteer, who now questions what he saw, would also answer C. This continues to happen and proved that group influence would override the individual’s own opinion and what he knew was correct for favor of the group and fear to stand …show more content…
Zimbardo converted a basement of the college into a very convincing prison environment, with guard break rooms, prison cells and individual bunks, uniforms, prison food, and a solitary confinement cell. An ad was put in a local paper for volunteers and over seventy individuals replied to the ad. 24 mentally competent college students were picked for the experiment and were randomly assigned as prisoners or guards. Three dropped out and it eventually worked out as ten prisoners and eleven guards. The prisoners were realistically arrested at their homes and taken away in police cars. They were photographed and fingerprinted, stripped and deloused, given a uniform and referred to by their number rather than their names. They were forced to wear a chain around their ankles to act as a reminder of their position. The guards were given identical khaki uniforms, a whistle, club, and a pair of sunglasses to eye contact with the prisoners was impossible. Within hours of starting the trial a few guards started to harass detainees. They acted in a ruthless and perverted way, evidently enjoying it. Different guards joined in, and different detainees were likewise
There have been countless social experiments used to test people’s reactions or lack of reaction to seemingly shocking events going on around them. These social experiments could be a child seemingly being abducted, a college student being bullied, a woman being raped, or infinitely more similar situations. The …show more content…
The experiment was set up so there were five people sitting down at a table, and only one was a volunteer in the experiment, the rest were confidants. The volunteer did not know this and believed all of them were in the same situation. The experimenter showed the volunteer”s” a picture with three lines, and a fourth line on the left. The goal was to have the volunteers identify which line (A, B, or C) matched the line on the left, and the answer was always glaringly obvious. The people would all answer the question, and the true volunteer would answer last. The first couple times, the confidants would answer the question correctly, then after a couple trials, the confidants all answered the question incorrectly, but they all said the same thing. For example, the correct answer is B, all of the confidants would answer C without hesitation. Then the volunteer, who now questions what he saw, would also answer C. This continues to happen and proved that group influence would override the individual’s own opinion and what he knew was correct for favor of the group and fear to stand …show more content…
Zimbardo converted a basement of the college into a very convincing prison environment, with guard break rooms, prison cells and individual bunks, uniforms, prison food, and a solitary confinement cell. An ad was put in a local paper for volunteers and over seventy individuals replied to the ad. 24 mentally competent college students were picked for the experiment and were randomly assigned as prisoners or guards. Three dropped out and it eventually worked out as ten prisoners and eleven guards. The prisoners were realistically arrested at their homes and taken away in police cars. They were photographed and fingerprinted, stripped and deloused, given a uniform and referred to by their number rather than their names. They were forced to wear a chain around their ankles to act as a reminder of their position. The guards were given identical khaki uniforms, a whistle, club, and a pair of sunglasses to eye contact with the prisoners was impossible. Within hours of starting the trial a few guards started to harass detainees. They acted in a ruthless and perverted way, evidently enjoying it. Different guards joined in, and different detainees were likewise