Asch lines: the majority is wrong on purpose
About this app
Self-test after Solomon Asch: six people at the table name the same wrong line unanimously in 8 of 12 trials, and you answer last. Then the reveal and a builder with Asch’s measurements: size of the majority (1 to 15), an ally who answers correctly (32 % drops to 5.5 %), answering out loud or hidden.
With explain mode: an AI tutor walks you through the app, points out what matters in the scene and answers your questions.
Asch’s conformity experiment
From 1951 Solomon Asch showed students a standard line and three comparison lines. On their own, people made fewer than 1 % errors on this task. But seven to nine people sat in the room, and all but one had been instructed: in 12 of 18 trials they named the same wrong line, out loud and unanimously. The 123 real participants went along with the wrong majority in 36.8 % of these answers. About a quarter always stayed independent, a third went along in half the trials or more (Asch 1952, 1955).
What the app shows
Six drawn people sit at a table, with the board and its lines above them. In the self-test they answer in turn, you go last, and while you decide everyone looks at you. After twelve trials comes the reveal, with your result next to Asch’s distribution. A chart shows Asch’s data points: a majority of one has almost no effect, two give 12.8 %, from three on about a third, and larger groups are not stronger.
Try it yourself
In the builder you set the instructed majority from 1 to 15 people, put an ally in seat 4 who always answers correctly, and let the participant answer out loud or hidden. A simulated person then goes through twelve critical trials. With an ally, Asch’s rate dropped from 32 to 5.5 %. The effect of the hidden answer is an assumed model value. Your own trial stays on the page and is not saved.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the Asch experiment show?
- The Asch experiment shows that people can publicly follow a unanimous but wrong majority on an obvious task. In Asch’s studies this happened in 36.8 % of critical answers, although almost nobody made errors alone. At the same time two thirds of the answers stayed correct, and a quarter of the participants never gave in.
- How large does a group need to be for conformity to appear?
- In Asch’s studies a single opponent had hardly any effect, two people led to 12.8 % errors, and from three on the full effect of about a third was reached. Larger majorities of up to 15 or 16 people were not stronger. What mattered was that the majority was unanimous.
- What happens when one person contradicts the majority?
- A single ally who answered correctly lowered the error rate in Asch’s study from 32 to 5.5 %. When this ally later switched to the majority, the rate rose again to 28.5 %. Unanimity therefore matters more than the size of the group.
- Can I do the experiment myself in the app?
- Yes, as a shortened self-test with twelve trials. Since you can guess what it is about, your result is not a real test, but the pressure of the looks is noticeable. Afterwards you set group size, ally and answer mode in the builder and compare with Asch’s data.
Subject: Psychology
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