What is the phenomenon called when people in a group agree on something, even though it is blatantly wrong.?

Question

I remember from my college psych class in which a control group of several people picked straws from a series of photos. The shortest straws were to be selected, but one person, the subject, knew that the group were picking the wrong straws (longer ones), but went along with the group decision so as not to be embarrased.

Answer 1

I believe that you're thinking of Asch's experiment in which he showed a group of people a series of lines. One line was very short, another very long, and a third was about average. He then showed the group a line which was very close to the length of the average line in the prior group of 3 lines. All of the people in the group were actually members of Asch's research team and were trained to say that that line was the length of the shortest line. Then, when it was the real participant's turn to say what line this new line was closest to, the participant invariably went along with the decision of the rest of the group. However, when 1 of the research assistants was instructed to say that the line was actually most similar to the average line, then the participant was able to go against the rest of the group and make an accurate reporting of the line's length.

This study was meant to demonstrate the principle of conformity among group members. This study was not meant to illustrate the principle of group think, though the principles are somewhat related.

For a good overview of Asch's study, the following site may be helpful - http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/social/asch_conformity.html

Answer 2

Group Think.

Answer 3

Group think

Answer 4

I can't remember the exact terminology, however, I know it is some sort of groupthink phenomenon in social psych. Sorry I can't be of further assistance!

Answer 5

bigotry or ethnocentrism