Question

Please summarize both Asch’s and Milgrim’s experiments based on your readings and the video clips in Unit 7. Compare and contrast the Asch and Milgrim experiments, providing ample detail to illustrate your point.

Answer 1

Both Asch and Milgram experiments studied about the conformity of people. The former studied the conformity to group while the latter studied conformity to authority. Solomon Asch studied people’s response to group conformity in a lab set-up using 50 volunteers. He had two boards, the first one had one line equal to one of the three lines on the other boards. Most of the volunteers, although they knew that they were choosing the wrong line, chose it because others chose it. Stanley Milgram studied the conformity of people to authority in a lab set-up where he administered electric shock to people whenever they gave a wrong answer. At one end, a person acted as the teacher and on the other end another one acted as the student who was tied to the electrode. Although, people experienced pain and asked the experimenter to stop, they were forced to continue with pain. Both these experiments proved that people hesitate to make decisions on their own. When put under pressure and force people obey without objecting to authority as Milgram experiment’s objective was to study the conformity level of the German soldiers.

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