Who was Solomon Asch?

Imagine sitting in a classroom where the teacher holds up two lines—one obviously short, and one super long. She points to the tiny one and asks, "Is this line longer?" You know it's not! But suddenly, every single kid around you confidently says, "Yes!" What would you do? Would you trust your own eyes, or go along with the crowd? Join Mira and Finn on Philosophy is Not Boring as they dive into one of the sneakiest and most famous psychology tests ever! In 1951, psychologist Solomon Asch hired secret actors to give the wrong answers on a vision test just to see if one real person would copy them to fit in. The results will blow your mind—a whopping 75 percent of people agreed with a clearly wrong answer at least once! Discover why our brains are wired to copy others, why a group of three is the magic number for peer pressure, and the super hopeful twist: how having just ONE brave ally changes everything! Plus, test your memory in our fun trivia quiz at the end!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Philosophy is not boring by kidopoly.com. I'm Mira and I'm Finn. Okay, Finn, I want you to imagine a really weird situation. Picture yourself sitting in a normal classroom.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Ha, easy.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

I'm there five days a week. True, but in this classroom, the teacher holds up a piece of paper with a really short line drawn on it. Then she holds up another paper with a super long line.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Okay, short line, long line. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

The teacher points to the short line and asks the class, is this line longer? You can see with your own two eyes that it's tiny. So I just say, no, it's short. But wait, before you can speak, the kid next to you says, yes, it's definitely longer. What? Are they joking? Then the kid behind you says, yep, it's the long one. And the kid in front of you says it too. Every single person in the room confidently says the short line is the longer one.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Wait, are my eyes broken? Or is everyone else going crazy?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Exactly! Now it's your turn to answer. The whole room is looking at you. What do you do? Do you trust your own eyes, or do you go along with the crowd?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Oh man, that is so creepy. I want to say I'd trust my eyes, but that's a lot of pressure.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

It is a ton of pressure. Today we are diving into a real life experiment that asked this exact question. It's all about why we copy each other and what happens when we do.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Did someone actually test this line thing in real life? Because that sounds like a massive prank.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

They did! It wasn't a prank. It was science. In the 1950s, a famous psychologist named Solomon Ash wanted to study this exact thing. Solomon Ash? What kind of psychologist was he? He was a Polish American social psychologist. Social psychology is all about how people behave when they are around other people.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Because we act totally differently when we're alone, right? Like when I sing in my room versus when I sing in front of a whole crowd.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Exactly. Solomon Ash was really curious about conformity. Conformity is a big word that just means matching your behaviour or your beliefs to the group around you.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Going along with the crowd, fitting in.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Right. And Ash was chewing on a really big problem. In the 1950s, people were starting to realise how dangerous it could be when large groups of people just blindly agreed with each other without thinking.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Because if everyone is doing something bad, but nobody wants to be the odd one out, the bad thing just keeps happening.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Bingo! Ash wondered, how strong is that pull to fit in? Is it strong enough to make someone ignore what they can clearly see right in front of them?

SPEAKER_01 3:01

So he couldn't just ask people, hey, would you ignore your own eyes? Because everyone would immediately say no. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Nobody thinks they would just follow the crowd blindly. So, in 1951, Ash created a very clever, kind of sneaky experiment to see what people would actually do. Ooh, a sneaky science experiment. How did it work? Okay, picture this.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

You are a college student volunteering for what you think is a simple vision test. A vision test? Like reading tiny letters off a chart at the eye doctor.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Sort of. You walk into a room and there are seven other students already sitting around a table. You take the last empty seat.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Just me and seven strangers. Nothing weird yet.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

The scientist shows everyone two cards. On the first card, there is one straight black line. They call it the target line. Okay, so I'm looking at one line. On the second card, there are three lines. Let's call them A, B, and C. One of those lines is the exact same length as the target line. The other two are completely, obviously, different.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

So it's not a trick question.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

It's really obvious which one matches. Super obvious. The scientist asks each person around the table, one by one, to say out loud which line matches the target line. Easy peasy. For the first couple of rounds, everyone gives the correct answer. You give the correct answer. It's boring.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Just a normal, boring vision test.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

But on the third round, the scientist shows the cards. The answer is obviously line C, but the first person confidently says line A. Wait, what? Are they blind? Then the second person says line A. The third person says line A. Every single person ahead of you chooses the completely wrong line.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

And then it gets to me.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Oh my gosh, my heart would be pounding so fast. Here is the secret of the experiment. Those seven other people were not real participants. They were actors working for Solomon Ash. Haha, I knew it.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

They were in on it the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Yep, only one person in the room was actually being tested. The one real participant who had no idea the others were actors. That poor person!

SPEAKER_01 5:27

So what did they do? Did they say line C, the real answer? Or did they go along with the actors?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Well, the results were mind-blowing. Out of all the trials, about 75% of the real participants went along with the clearly wrong group at least once.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

75%? That means most people just agreed with a lie because everyone else was doing it.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Isn't that wild? Even when their own eyes told them the truth, the pressure of the group was just too heavy. But why? Did they actually think their eyes were playing tricks on them? After the experiment, Ash interviewed the participants. A few actually thought their vision was wrong, but most of them knew the group was wrong. Then why didn't they just say so? They said they didn't want to be ridiculed, or thought of as weird, or ruined the harmony of the group. Nobody wants to be the odd one out.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Wow, that's actually kind of sad. It makes me feel like we're all just copying each other.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

It can feel that way, but Ash wasn't trying to make people feel bad. Going along with the group is a deeply normal human instinct. But wait, Ash did another version of the experiment with a twist, and the results were super hopeful.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

I need some hope right now. What was the twist?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

He ran the experiment again, but this time he had one of the actors give the correct answer before it was the real participant's turn. Just one person telling the truth. Just one ally. And guess what? When the participant had just one person agreeing with them, conformity plummeted. Almost everyone bravely said the right answer. Whoa!

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Just having one other person on your side changes everything.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Yes, having even one ally breaks the spell of the group. It gives you the courage to trust what you see.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

That makes so much sense for real life. Like, if everyone is making fun of a kid on the playground, it feels impossible to stand up to them.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

But if just one person says, hey, that's not cool, suddenly other kids will find the courage to speak up too.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

You don't have to be a superhero to change the group. You just have to be the first one to say the true thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Exactly. That's why Solomon Ash's experiment from 1951 is still so important today. The pressure to fit in isn't a failing, it's just how human brains are wired.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

But once we know about it, we can actually fight it. When I feel that weird pressure to agree with something silly, I'll just think of the lines.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

That's the power of philosophy and psychology. Now, before our quiz, I have a mind-bending fun fact for you about this experiment.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Hit me with the weird and wonderful details.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

So Ash tested different sizes of groups. You'd think a room of 50 people would be way harder to disagree with than a room of four, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Oh, totally. 50 people staring at me would be terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

But Ash found out that the pressure peaks at about three or four people. After three people disagree with you, the pressure to conform is already at its maximum. Adding 20 more people doesn't actually make it any harder.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Wait, really? So standing up to a whole crowd is the exact same amount of hard as standing up to three friends?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yep. Our brains just hit a panic button at a group of three. I love that fact. Alright, Finn, quiz time. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

First question. Who is the psychologist we talked about today who ran this famous experiment? Next one. What year did his famous experiment start? Question three. What were the participants asked to look at and compare in the test? Here's number four. Roughly what percentage of people went along with the wrong answer at least once? Last question. What happened to the pressure when just one other person gave the right answer? Great job. Let's see how you did. The first answer is the psychologist was Solomon Ash. For question two, the experiment started in 1951. Number three, the answer is they were asked to compare the length of lines. Question four. About 75% of people went along with the wrong group at least once. And the final answer is the pressure to conform plummeted and people bravely told the truth.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Wow, 75%? That number is still blowing my mind.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

It really makes you think, doesn't it? The next time you're in a group, just remember, it's okay and actually really brave to trust what you see.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

And if you see someone else standing alone, be their one ally. It makes all the difference.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

If you liked learning about Solomon Ash and the power of standing up for the truth, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down and tap the stars.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah, it really helps other kids find the show and join our thinking adventures.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Oh, and don't forget to check out our site, kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games and activities there.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

And if you want a shout out on the show or just want to say hi, email us at hello at kidopoly.com. We love hearing from you.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

See you next time on Philosophy is not boring. Bye everyone!