Critical Thinking
In this video, an experiment was conducted to investigate how majority group’s social pressure affects people’s conformation. Seven students are put in a stable room with another naïve participant and a task on line judgment is used. Before the experiment, the seven confederates had decided on which response to adopt when the task is presented. However, the naïve participant is not familiar with this plan and believes that, every other participant is real. In all the criminal trials made by the seven confederates, the naïve participant follows their opinions.
If I was a naïve participant in a case like this, I could have conformed to belong to the confederates’ opinion so as to avoid peculiar thoughts by the other participants. This experiment uses artificial task-line judgment task. I would fear to be ridiculed if I followed my own opinion and at the end, the opinion is found to be unreasonable or wrong hence following the majority opinion. Secondly, this experiment is open to psychological stress; disagreeing with the confederates can significantly affect the naïve participant. I could decide to follow the majority in fear of psychological stress. Thirdly, I would choose to conform to the majority in order to fit the group due to normative influence. Finally, this experiment is conducted in ways that, one can think that, the confederates are better informed and brighter than the naïve participant.
Conclusion
An experiment conducted to investigate how majority group’s social pressure affects people’s conformation should allow the naïve participant to answer the test in private. This can reduce the degree of conformity due to the fact that, the naïve participant is influenced to very big extent by fear of being ridiculed by the other members of the group. If the experiment was conducted in private, I could not conform to the majority.
What I learned from my Assumption
Misjudging situations due to our own preconceptions is something which we do almost every day. The most difficult situations to judge are those that appear externally. These situations are very difficult to judge due to the fact that, our own preconceptions significantly affect our reasoning due to the hidden side of the situations. I have often misjudged the kindest and the warmest situations in my life differently compared to the situations that are associated with feelings arising from the inside breakages due to preconceptions.
I have always misjudged that discrimination and stigma surrounding mental illness is not independent of the current status of the person in question. However, this misjudgment has always been accelerated by my own preconceptions that, depression cannot exist in wealthy, loved or wealthy people. This preconception makes the worse every day. Selfishness and guilty of the person in question are the two preconceptions that always trigger my thoughts to misjudgment of this situation. They make me ridiculous, weak and pathetic while making the right decision about the situation. This mindset about discrimination and stigma surrounding the people’s mental illness is not true due to the fact that, it is always independent of the current status of the person in question.
Conclusion
While making judgments in some life and general situations, one should free himself from preconceptions since they influence one’s ideas. Past studies indicate that, we make judgments that are under the influence of our preconceptions hence many of the situations we judge end up implying the wrong thing. Preconceptions perceive witnesses while making judgments on some situations reducing their confidence and consistency. Preconceptions also affect the background of the judge by crediting it more that it discredits in return hence causing lie-judgments on the situations on question. Therefore, while making judgment on various situations, one should avoid making lie-judgments due to the influence of the preconceptions.
