Opinions and Social Pressure Essay Example for Free

Opinions and fond Pressure EssayAsch in his essay Opinions and Social Pressure conducted an experiment to determine effects of group pressure towards an individual and concluded that there is a very strong tendency to conformity notwithstanding when doing so conflicting with their own senses of morality. In the experiment a group of young students have to comp are length of lines on two different sheets of paper. On one of them there is a sample single line and on the other one there are three lines only one of which is similar size as the sample line from the first sheet. People taking part in this experiment are instructed to point at lines that are the similar length. At first, during the experiment the group is unanimous in their answers and chooses the correct line, but later on the person that sits near to the end of the line in which spate taking part in the experiment are sited, selects different answers then the rest of the group. As the experiment continues and th e situation repeats, the isolated in selecting different than the mass answers person shows signs of feeling uncomfortable in position of dissenter.What he doesnt know is that the rest of the group is instructed to give wrong answers while the experiment is conducted. The single individual is placed in the minority while actually giving the correct answers. Subjects of this experiment could act independently or they could go along with masss opinion. A prominent percentage yielded. Under the majority pressure people are more likely to accept the misleading information. There are extreme examples of totally independent individuals as well as people who totally agree with the majority almost most of the time and the tendency is passing consistent.After reconstructing the experiment the next question for the scientist to answer is which aspect of go is more important, the size of majority or its unanimity. It turns out, that the majority size sterilizes a loss only to the point w here majority group involves three people. Making the majority any blown-upger would not influence on the error rate for the answers in the experiment. Breaking up unanimity of the group in given answers has a significant effect. In the experiment it is also noted that the rate of wrong answers depends to a considerable degree on how wrong the majority is.Even with significant difference in length of lines there were still individuals who agree with majority error. For those fighting(a) in this experiment almost all declare that independence was preferable to conformity. Life in friendship requires consensus as an indispensable conditions. But consensus, to be productive, requires that separately individual contribute independently out of his experience and insight. () We have found that tendency to conformity in our society so strong that reasonably and well- nitty-gritty young people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern (Salomon E.Asch Opinion and Social Pre ssure pp. 730). The experiment has turn up that we live in times where opinion become very subjective and can be easily modified. Social techniques are wildly used in marketing and sales or even by lobbyist in governmental decision making process. The uncertainty of people own senses, opinion or association can be easily abused. Aschs experiment implements how people believe in the obvious lies. Its shows simple ways of influencing perception, judgment and action. Results of this experiment trip out a number of social and scientifically researches like study of Berns G.S. (2005) (Neurobiological Correlates of Social Conformity and Independence During Mental Rotation, Biological Psychiatry, 58(3), pp 245-253), that explains decision making influence on very profound level. It proves that social mechanisms of authority have an effect not only on individual behavior but it also effects head word chemistry. Resources Opinions and Social Pressure / by Solomon E. Asch Berns G. S. (200 5) (Neurobiological Correlates of Social Conformity and Independence During Mental Rotation, Biological Psychiatry, 58(3), pp 245-253) Reaction ParagraphI was very surprised by the results of Aschs experiment. I always knew that the opinion of the group counts and its important to most of us, but would never except that the scale and strength of decision making influence techniques can be so large and effective. Society faces many different forms and techniques of decision making influences that were developed from results of the Aschs experiment. This techniques share common goals which are to make society to obey and find the best ways to achieve social conformity.On positive side, conformity can be used to create predictability references or to organize a convenient social structure that doesnt require constant renegotiations. On the negative side, its a key to a ample power over social behavior and actions. This raise questions over morality and responsibility over the actions that could be caused by manipulations. If the study was conducted on contemporary society the results wouldnt be much different if not even showing stronger tendency to conformity.Living in the age of social media, mass communication networks and globalisation concepts individuals are more pressured to obey, to be a part of events or actions not truly and not only by their free will. The study indicates that in big majority people are followers and they tend to obey authority and follow the opinion of majority. Awareness of how humans tend to obey comes with some tips on how we can protect ourselves from external influence. Cultivating a healthy skepticism and exercising active change in our behavior make us less undefended to prospective social experiments.