In his essay titled ‘Opinions and Social Pressure’, Solomon E.

Asch conveys the

idea that the influence of the group and the pressure it puts on an individual’s shoulders is

enough to make most people conform to the idea of the majority. He backs up his

statement with results taken from experiments that he conducted with the help of his

colleagues. Being himself a social psychologist, Asch resumes the history behind group

pressure as a means of introduction to the subject. Most of the researches done in the

past, including his own, are striving to answer one main question : ‘How, and to what

extend, do social forces constrain people’s opinions and attitudes?’(207).

He goes on to explain how his experiment is designed and how it can give some

answers. He formed little groups of students who had to compare the length of four

different lines and find the two lines that had the same length. At first, the group has an

homogeneous response. However, with the progression of the test, there is one subject

who is singled out by the majority because of his answer. Every students, saves for the

examined subject, are involved in the process and are asked to give the worst possible

answer. Time and time again, the subject is faced with the different answers from the

majority, which he must decide to follow or not (209).

After the first phase of his experiment, Asch interprets the results. Firstly, he notes

the possibilities of the subject : ‘… he could act independently, repudiating the majority,

or he could go along the majority, repudiating the evidence of his sense.’ (209). Secondly,

he explains that the rate of mistakes went up when the subject was confronted with the

pressure of the group (209). He also observed that there were two opposites that

constituted the extremities of his result data. Some people held fast to their idea, even if

the majority was against them. On the other hand of the spectrum, subjects would
conform almost automatically with the opinion of the group.

The experiment is then modified to answer other questions that arose during the

tests. Asch changes his experiment with the intent of answering a specific question :

‘Which aspect of the influence of a majority is more important−the size of the majority or

its unanimity?’(210). He then proceeded to gradually increase the opposition against the

subject, from a single student to fifteen students. The results showed that the more the

opposition grew, the more the subject would commit errors. However, the author did

remark that the impacts of the size were limited (210). In order to test the unanimity

aspect of the question, Asch introduces a partner that will pair his answers with the ones

of the subject. In most scenarios presented with the ‘partner’, the subject reduced his

percentage of errors and was more independent. Moreover, the subject started to conform

to the majority as soon as his partner left him (211-212).

At the end of his experimentation, he realizes that the whole process brought up

many other questions, all related to his main question. Of course, the goal of his

investigation was not as broad in the start, and thus, it leaves many questions to be

answered in other experiments. His final thoughts on the subject of his study are not of

the positive nature. He concludes by saying that an individual is inclined to change his

idea under the weight and pressure of the majority, all the while denying his own

perceptions:

That we have found the tendency to conformity in our society so strong that

reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call

white black is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of

education and about the values that guide our conduct (212).
 I personally found this essay very interesting. In my opinion, the author states a

truism that most person do not like to admit. We hold fast to our opinions and defend

them vigorously in a debate, but we tend to forget how easily we can get pulled into the

mass. Everyone needs to feel like they belong in a group. This feeling of belonging is

inherent to any human being, and although we like to think that we are all so unique, I

also think that we would give up this ‘uniqueness’ if it secluded us from the majority.

There is a fine line between sticking to what we hold true and isolating oneself from

everyone. According to me, like in many aspect of life, it is important to find the balance,

as to live a more fulfilling life.

Work Cited
Behrens, Laurence, and Leonard J. Rosen. "Opinions and Social Pressure." Writing and

Reading across the Curriculum. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008. Print.