Blog Post #5

 Blog 5)

One concept in class that we discussed that I found interesting was the discussion surrounding group conformity, specifically with the example of Asch's (1956) study. In his study, he asked participants to evaluate a picture of lines of different lengths, and to indicate which one was the longest. However, he placed confederates within the study to purposely give false answers (e.g., saying line B was longest, even though line A was clearly longer). Some participants stuck with their gut and gave the right answer, but a surprisingly high amount participants responded in line with the confederates, so they would not be judged or ostracized from the group.

I think that it is super important to always make sure that you voice your own opinion, even when everyone else conforms to a certain opinion that you know is wrong. However, I also understand that it is harmful to relationships to not conform, because the group will form an opinion of you and think less of you even though you may be right. 

An example of a time I dealt with this kind of problem was in a group project in my psychology statistics class. One my project mates proposed an idea that the group agreed with unanimously, but I immediately saw a potential flaw with the idea. I mentioned it to the group, but they all stayed with their idea, so I went along with it to not create friction in our group so we could continue to work well together. While we did lose marks on the assignment because of the flaw, I think it was the right decision to not interfere more with the group as it created less tension, and I was able to work with the same group multiple more times over the course of the semester. This kind of scenario reminds me of the importance of personal opinions in group situations and how social settings affect personal decisions.

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