How to Test Conformity With Your Own Psychology Experiment

Conformity involves adopting certain attitudes or behaviors to fit in with a particular group of people. Conformity experiments can be interesting project ideas for a psychology class, in addition to just being fun to perform.

Here we share some conformity experiments that have sought to better understand how people conform. These can be used as inspiration when developing our own experiments. We also provide a few questions that can help us come up with even more conformity experiment ideas.

Famous Conformity Experiments

One of the most well-known series of conformity experiments was conducted by psychologist Solomon Asch in the 1950s. Known as the Asch conformity experiments, these studies demonstrated the impact of social pressure on individual behavior. 

Participants in these studies were told that they were in a vision experiment and asked to look at three lines of different lengths to determine which was the longest. They were then placed with a group that they thought included others in the study. In reality, the others were actually in on the experiment.

After a few trials where everyone stated the correct answer, the subjects who were in on the experiment began choosing an incorrect response. When surrounded by people citing an incorrect answer, 75% of the true study subjects also gave an incorrect response to at least one of the line-length questions.

Other Conformity Experiments

Another popular conformity experiment was performed on the TV show Candid Camera. It involved a group of people on an elevator who all stood facing the rear of the elevator. Inevitably, everyone else who got on ended up also facing the rear so as not to stand out from the rest.

Other conformity experiments that have been performed include:

• Having a group of people stare up at a building
• Picketing with blank signs and pamphlets for no specific cause
• When one student leaves a classroom, the teacher has everyone else stand up when the student returns and sits down

A Conformity Experiment Example

Imagine that a student is in a math class and the instructor asks a basic math question. What is 8 x 4? The student knows that the correct answer is 32. However, when the teacher begins asking other students in the room for the answer, each one says that it is 27. How does the student respond?

This is a classic example of a conformity experiment in action. When the teacher finally gets to the student, does the student trust their own math skills and provide the correct answer or do they go along with the rest of the group and say that the answer is 27—even when they know that this is an incorrect response?

For some, the desire to fit in and belong is so strong that they will provide an answer that they know is incorrect. This helps them avoid being considered an "outsider" to others in the group.

Conformity Experiment Ideas

One way to envision our own experiment is to consider some of the conformity experiments that have been performed in the past. It can also be helpful to consider a few questions we could answer in our own psychology experiment.

Here are some questions that may spark a few conformity experiment ideas:

• How does group size impact conformity? Try the experiment with different numbers of helpers to see how many other people must be present before a person starts conforming to the group.
• What effect does age have on conformity? Try the experiment with participants in different age groups to see if the results differ.
• What's the impact of gender on conformity? Experiment to see if a participant is more likely to conform if other participants are of the same gender. What are the results if no other participants share their gender?
• How does the situation influence conformity? Are people more likely to conform in certain settings, such as a classroom, than they are in more natural, everyday settings? Run trials in various settings to see if there is a difference.

Additional Conformity Experiment Tips

Performing a psychology experiment for class can be a bit intimidating. Before beginning, we should always talk with the instructor about our experiment ideas to be sure that we have permission to carry out our project. In some cases, we may have to submit our idea for review beforehand to receive permission to experiment with human participants.

Conducting conformity experiments is a great way to learn more about the impacts that groups can have on individuals. Playing around with certain variables can widen our understanding of how far people will go to fit in, making them good conformity experiment ideas to try.