Summary Of Solomon Ash's Article 'Opinions And Social Pressure'

In 1955, Solomon Ash published an article “Opinions and Social Pressure” to a popular magazine. The article outlines an experiment conduced by Ash about conformity and how humans act when faced with conformity. Using cards with various length of lines, Solomon gathers 123 college students to question the length of each. Within this experiment, many different variables were in play in order to outline how a certain subject would respond. Although Solomon Ash’s experiment and article may have been effective in a time where racism and sexism were evident, it is viewed as non effective today. Specifically looking at Ash’s writing style, his choice of vocabulary was far fetched and hard to understand. It may be argued that at the time this article was published, the vocabulary was appropriate. However, when

This was not a scientific paper, it was an article published to a popular magazine at the time. Ash should have kept his audience in mind when writing this article. For example, Ash , in the beginning, discussed social conditions and how they shape opinions, then went on to talk about hypnosis, and finally, discussed his experiment and the results. To a reader, the organization does not make sense and is confusing; all of the pieces to the article do not have any link. While the organization has some issues, the actual experiment does not get any better. Social conditions play a huge role in determining how one does or does not conform and to what degree. There are various factors that Ash should have taken into account such as how a subject is raised and who the subject surrounds himself with. If it is human nature to conform, the results of his experiment were incorrect because not all of his subjects conformed to the norm. Even the stubbornness or the wish to stand out could play a role in how well someone will conform. To fix this, Ash could have studied his subjects to find