A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgement.

By NOW, many experimental studies (e.g., 1, 3, 6) have demonstrated that individual psychological processes are subject to social influences. Most investigators, however, have not distinguished among different kinds of social influences; rather, they have carelessly used the term "group" influence to characterize the impact of many different kinds of social factors. In fact, a review of the major experiments in this area—e.g., those by Sherif (6), Asch (1), Bovard (3)—would indicate that the subjects (5s) in these experiments as they made their judgments were not functioning as members of a group in any simple or obvious manner. The S, in the usual experiment in this area, made perceptual judgments hi the physical presence of others after hearing their judgments. Typically, the S was not given experimental instructions which made him feel that he was a member of a group faced with a common task requiring cooperative effort for its most effective solution. If "group" influences were at work in the foregoing experiments, they were subtly and indirectly created rather than purposefully created by the experimenter.