Q "Opinions and Social Pressure" by Solomon Asch: Reading & Reading Response Read "Opinions and Social Pressure" by Solomon Asch Download "Opinions and Social Pressure" by Solomon Asch. (Click the link to download the assigned article.) *Reading Notes: The experiment described in this article is a classic in the field of social psychology. Conducted in the 1950s, Asch's experiments on social pressure reveal the degree to which individuals will conform to group opinion, even when the group's opinion is clearly at odds with reality. Like the other two writers we'll read this week, Asch was working in the post-WWII period of American history, which was characterized by high social trust and cohesion, as well as high levels of trust in institutional authority. As you're reading, it's worth considering whether the experiment would produce such high levels of conformity in a different time period. That is to say -- Is conformity an inherent, stable aspect of human nature, or is it dependent on cultural and historical context? (For what it's worth, this video (Links to an external site.) shows the results of the experiment being reproduced in 2007 at UC Santa Cruz.) Also like the other writers we'll read this week, Asch lost family in the Holocaust--he was Jewish, and he immigrated to the U.S from Poland in 1920. His interest in the reality-warping potential of social pressure was likely, at least in part, influenced by the large-scale, profoundly destructive conformity that made the Holocaust possible. Then complete a Reading Response and submit it for 25 homework points. You will need to complete the reading in order to complete the Reading Response. The Reading Response Instructions are linked below. Reading Response Instructions Download Reading Response Instructions (Click the link to download the instructions.) *The Reading Responses are required, yet they're primarily a tool you can use to keep track of the ideas in the texts and your thoughts about them. These will be very useful resources once you're trying to integrate these texts into your essay. *I will be grading these responses primarily based on completion. If it's clear you've read the text and made a good-faith effort with the response, you'll get full credit.