thinker.jpg English 122 – sections 17 & 21: Herd Thinkers        

Discussion Questions
on the Readings

Instructions: Be prepared to give thorough, thoughtful answers to these questions during our class discussion of each reading assignment.  If you are unsure of your ability to do so, then you may want to write out your answers so that you can read them in class if necessary.  Keep in mind, though, that we may not have time to get to all of these questions, especially since I want you and your classmates to raise other questions or issues and to take the discussion in any direction you wish.

Solomon Asch  -  Opinions & Social Pressure

 

A. Preliminary Questions – Let’s get our facts straight.  (Short answers are preferred here.)

 

1.     Asked to choose the correct matching line, people will generally make a mistake less than 1% of the time.  Under group pressure, however, Asch’s subjects more frequently chose the incorrect line.  What percentage of the time were they swayed to choose the incorrect line the group had chosen?  What percentage of the subjects remained completely independent, never being swayed to answer incorrectly?

2.     Did the size of the majority group matter?  What effect did it have on the subject if there was only one other person giving the wrong answer or if there were two, three, four, or more?

3.     In one variation of the standard experiment, the influencing group included a “partner” who would not give the same wrong answer the others had all given.  What was the effect of this “partner” on the ability of the group to sway subjects to make the incorrect choice?  The support of this “partner” was removed in two ways. What were they and what effect did the loss of support have?

 

B. Discussion Questions – Let’s think about it.  (Long answers are preferred here.  Give details or examples, quote from the text, explain your thinking, acknowledge doubts, raise questions.)

  1. Asch reports the design and results of experiments which, he says, "demonstrate the operations of group pressure upon individuals" (para. 7).  But he never provides summary conclusions as to what he believes these results say about independence and conformity, except to note some "subtle questions" (para. 7) they raise and, at the end, to note the significance of the distinction between "consensus" and "conformity" (para. 28).  How would you sum up the central implications of Asch's findings?  Do they make sense to you?  Why or why not?

  2. Asch writes “When consensus comes under the dominance of conformity, the social process is polluted.”  Explain in your own words what Asch is saying here.  Why would any group decision probably be stronger if conformity did not dominate in arriving at consensus than if it did?

  3. After gaining preliminary results, Asch deliberately varied the basic experiment to learn more.  What did he find regarding the effects of "dissent" within the group (p. 165) and of "desertion" by a "partner" who had sided with the subject and against the majority view (p. 166)?  (See question #3 above.)  What might these findings imply about the forming of public opinion and the making of group decisions?

4.     Despite the troubling evidence of conformity, Asch claims at the end that “the capacities for independence are not to be underestimated.”  This is a nice thought, but what evidence is there for this conclusion?

Instructions: Be prepared to give thorough, thoughtful answers to these questions during our class discussion of each reading assignment.  If you are unsure of your ability to do so, then you may want to write out your answers so that you may read them in class if necessary.  Keep in mind, though, that we may not have time to get to all of these questions, especially since I want you and your classmates to raise other questions or issues and to take the discussion in any direction you wish.

Gregory Berns Refines Asch’s Obedience Experiments

Discussion Questions – Let’s think about it.  (Long answers are preferred here.  Give details or examples, quote from the text, explain your thinking, acknowledge doubts, raise questions.)

1.     (a) What did Berns want to learn from doing brain scans on subjects while carrying out a similar conformity experiment?  (b) What did he learn – i.e., what were his results?

2.     With regard to the subjects who did not conform but remained independent, Berns found no activity in the part of the brain that controls judgments and decisions but rather activity in the amygdala.  What does he say this means?  Does that make sense to you?

3.     With regard to the subjects who conformed, Berns found some surprising results.  How did he interpret them?

4.     In summing up Berns’ finding, Schamir first writes “Study Participants are found to be in a conformity based unconscious ‘trance-like’ delusion located in the ocular region of the brain.”  And later she writes: “The viewers actually appeared to be in a hypnotic trance-like state physically unable to see the truth of a simple design in front of their faces!”  Is that an inaccurate summary of Berns’ findings – or is it essentially accurate but somewhat overstated?  Explain.

Instructions: As before, be prepared to give thorough, thoughtful answers to these questions during our class discussion of each reading assignment.  If you are unsure of your ability to do so, then you may want to write out your answers so that you may read them in class if necessary.

Stanley Milgram - The Perils of Obedience

Discussion Questions – Let’s think about it.  (Long answers are preferred here.)

1.     Briefly describe Milgram's experiment.  Sum up, in a paragraph or two, what he did and what the results were.

2.     Milgram claims that his findings corroborate Hannah Arendt's thesis about the "banality of evil" (page 8 – “The Etiquette of Submission,” para. 5).  Explain what this means.  How does Milgram sum up what it means – in para. 6, for example)?  Do you agree that the results of his experiment support his view -- or would you question that interpretation?  Or would you question the validity of his experiment?
 

3.     Milgram reports that being an "intermediate link" affected a subject's willingness to continue shocking the "learner" (page 10 – “Duty Without Conflict,” para. 17), leading to his concern with what he calls "a fragmentation of the total human act" (para. 19).   Explain the connection here.  What is Milgram saying?

4.     What is "the dilemma inherent in obedience to authority," as Milgram calls it?

Instructions: As before, be prepared to give thorough, thoughtful answers to these questions during our class discussion of each reading assignment. 

Stanley Milgram – Perspectives on Obedience to Authority (See “Later Considerations” on Milgram page too.)

  1. Choose one significant fact, idea, or observation that Milgram makes in Chapter One that was not in “The Perils of Obedience.”  First quote it.  Then explain it.  And finally tell us why it seems significant to you.

  2. In the Epilogue, Milgram quotes at length a disturbing interview with a soldier who had participated in the My Lai Massacre.  What makes it so disturbing?   Milgram says “the massacre at My Lai revealed with special clarity the problem to which this book has addressed itself.”  How so?  Explain the connection.

  3. Milgram attributes the problem he sees to the bureaucratization of society, the emergence of “institutional man,” the “man in the gray flannel suit.”  He writes, for instance, that “Something far more dangerous is revealed: the capacity for man to abandon his humanity, indeed, the inevitability that he does so, as he merges his unique personality into larger institutional structures.”  “But when he merges his person into an organizational structure,” Milgram argues, “a new creature replaces autonomous man, unhindered by the limitations of individual morality, freed of humane inhibition, mindful only of the sanctions of authority.”  Explain in your own words what he means by this.  Do you agree?  Explain why or why not.

  4. Can you think of a contemporary instance of the problem that concerns Milgram?  What is it and how do Milgram’s ideas apply to it?

5.     Milgram writes: “A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority.”  Do you agree?  Why, or why not?


Jerry Berger – Replicating Milgram

  1. Does it surprise you that Milgram’s findings apparently remain true today?

  2. What did Berger do to make it possible to replicate Milgram (at least partially) after years of scholars assuming it was no longer possible to do so?

  1. What issue does Berger emphasize that moves us beyond Milgram’s concerns?

PSR, Janis & Em Griffin  - Groupthink Readings & Griffin’s Groupthink of Irving Janis

1.      After reading Griffin's interesting explanations and examples of Irving Janis's influential concept of "groupthink," explain in your own words what "groupthink" is.  What are some of the symptoms of "groupthink"?

2.      Does Janis (as presented by Griffin) make a strong argument for the existence of groupthink?  Do you believe it's real?  Why, or why not?

3.     In illustrating the 8 symptoms of "groupthink" in  Janis's theory, Griffin applies each one to the Challenger disaster (see "Symptoms of Groupthink," pp. 138-140).  At the end of the Power Point presentation from PSR, many other examples of public fiascos and disastrous group decisions are listed.   Choose one of these and do with it what Griffin does with the Challenger disaster.  You needn't apply all 8 symptoms, but certainly at least 5 or 6. Unless you are a history buff, you will need to do some online research to gather the facts you need to complete this task.

4.      If you know of a strong example of groupthink from your own experience, describe it.  (optional)

Erich Fromm - Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem

1.  What is the difference, according to Fromm, between "heteronomous obedience" and "autonomous obedience"? Does this distinction seem true to you?  Is it a useful distinction to make?  Explain why or why not.

2.  How does Fromm distinguish between "authoritarian conscience" and "humanistic conscience"?  Does this distinction seem true to you?  Is it a useful distinction to make?  Explain why or why not.

3.  According to Fromm, what are the psychological comforts of obedience, the causes that might motivate people to obey?

4.  In Fromm's view, those in power, authorities, would prefer that people obey because they want to and not solely out of fear.  What is his reasoning as to why this is so?

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