RESOURCE FILES

Chapter 2

Seeing and Thinking Sociologically

Images of the Social World

 


A Test of Perception

Which line in fig. 2 is the same length as the line in fig.1?. A series of experiments by Solomon Asch, testing the effects of social pressure on individual perceptions, showed that some people in some situations will go against the evidence of their own senses if the people around them seem to perceive something different.

Study Site for David M. Newman Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, Sixth Edition
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc.
Available online: http://www.pineforge.com/newman6study
Created January 2006
Copyright 2006 by SAGE Publications, Inc.; all rights reserved