Explain the key difference(s) between the Asch experiment and the Sherif experiment? That is, how different with regard to ambiguity of stimuli? How different with regard to "true effect" on perception?

Question

What two key ways in which social influence works were demonstrated by these experiments?
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer:
In Asch, participants saw lines of unambiguous length, so that the group influence was very obviously "wrong" but participants conformed, whereas in Sherif, the movement of light was ambiguous, allowing the distance of the light travel to be an emerging norm of the group process. Because in Asch, conformity was about the unambiguous line lengths, participants often did not personally accept the social influence, but conformed anyway. In Sherif, there was personal acceptance by all participants of the light distances. Asch demonstrated how far people will go to have group acceptance, to follow the group norm. Sherif, on the other hand, showed that people wished merely to know what is a correct judgment in the group.