Conformity
Sherif (1935) studied how people behave in an unclear situation. In his experiment, participants guessed how far a small point of light on a black screen is moving. This point of light didn’t actually move. It was an optical illusion. First, the participants had to make guesses on their own. Then, they were put into groups of three. There, they changed their answers to fit those of the other two participants better. The researchers made sure that two participants with rather high guesses were put together with a participant with a rather low guess. After, this participant changed his answer to be more similar to the ones of the others. The researchers suggested that this is a sign for conformity. Afterwards, the participants had to make a guess on their own again. There, the answers of their group members from before influenced them, because their guesses were similar to what they had guessed in the group situation. Because of the unclear situation, participants looked at what others were doing. Therefore, they changed their answers to conform to the group.