In the 1930s, Asch started to do research. In 1951, Asch did an experiment that is known as the Asch Experiment. Asch's experiment tested how much humans are influenced by other people's opinions. A textbook that Asch wrote, "Social Psychology", was published in 1952. In 1966 Asch started the Institute for Cognitive Studies at Rutgers University. In 1972 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania. He stayed there as a professor of psychology until he retired in 1979. He started all of this research because he thought that there was a problem with the Sherif's conformity test.