The power of social influence: A replication and extension of the Asch experiment

Author:

Franzen AxelORCID,Mader Sebastian

Abstract

In this paper, we pursue four goals: First, we replicate the original Asch experiment with five confederates and one naïve subject in each group (N = 210). Second, in a randomized trial we incentivize the decisions in the line experiment and demonstrate that monetary incentives lower the error rate, but that social influence is still at work. Third, we confront subjects with different political statements and show that the power of social influence can be generalized to matters of political opinion. Finally, we investigate whether intelligence, self-esteem, the need for social approval, and the Big Five are related to the susceptibility to provide conforming answers. We find an error rate of 33% for the standard length-of-line experiment which replicates the original findings by Asch (1951, 1955, 1956). Furthermore, in the incentivized condition the error rate decreases to 25%. For political opinions we find a conformity rate of 38%. However, besides openness, none of the investigated personality traits are convincingly related to the susceptibility of group pressure.

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Reference41 articles.

1. Asch, Solomon E. (1951): Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments. In: Guetzkow, H. (Ed.) Groups, leadership and men; research in human relations, p. 177–190. Carnegie Press.

2. Opinions and social pressure;Solomon E. Asch;Scientific American,1955

3. Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs;Solomon E. Asch;General and Applied,1956

4. The effects of financial incentives in experiments: A review and capital-labor-production framework;Colin F. Camerer;Journal of Risk and Uncertainty,1999

5. The forgotten variable in conformity research: Impact of task importance on social influence;Robert S. Baron;Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,1996

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