Ruth Axelrod wrote, "I suspect that social changes over the past 40
years have affected human behavior so that the results of the Asch
experiments (and others) may no longer be valid. Does anyone know of
any recent research that has attempted to replicate this body of work on
individual compliance with a group consensus?"
An alternative hypothesis is that the behavior of people under pressure
to conform to the views of the group of which they are a part has not
changed one iota in the past 40,000 years. It may be argued that some
cultural groups currently tolerate more eccentric or idiosyncratic
behavior than was tolerated at other times in the past, i.e., are in a
high tolerance phase. History suggests that such phases wax and wane.
However, WHEN groups DO put the squeeze on, what makes you suspect that
the behavior of the groups and the behavior of individuals under the
pressure to conform have anything to do with social changes over the
past X years? Is it suggested that the change itself affects group
pressuring and individual response? (e.g., high rates of change cause
stress which causes behaviors that don't occur in low stress/low change
states) Or that the different social environment in this time period
affects group pressuring and individual response. My counterpoint is
that social fashions may affect then length of the leash, but that the
yank is the about same when it gets pulled. I would be interested in
learning about any research findings, pro, con, or mixed, that bears on
these issues.
--
Prof. John L. Naman
naman@imap.pitt.edu http://www.pitt.edu/~naman