The Asch Conformity Line Experiment was a social psychology experiment conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s. The experiment aimed to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could influence a person to conform. Participants were asked to complete a simple perceptual task of matching line lengths in the experiment. However, only one of the participants was actually participating in the experiment, while the others (called confederates) were working with the researchers to give incorrect answers. The results of the experiment demonstrated that individuals were highly likely to conform to the incorrect majority opinion, even when they knew it was wrong. This effect was dependent on the number of confederates; three or more had a three-fold chance to sway the participant versus only one other confederate with the participant. This study highlighted the powerful influence of social pressure on individual behavior.

For this game, the majority of your students will be a 'confederate' for this activity. For lower elementary students, we can use a simple exercise such as a relay race or a jumping game in which everyone can have some success as our mode of testing for this experiment in our PE class. The key is to create an activity where the 'participant' can be influenced by the 'confederates' in a visible and measurable way. For this lesson write- up, I use dribbling a basketball as the modality but feel free to substitute throwing and catching or other simple physical movements. For upper elementary or middle school, we can use a sport like tennis or volleyball to practice sport-specific skills and use the out-of- bounds call as our testing method.

When we notice the time frame that this experiment was first conducted, we know that WWII was only a few years in the past. The experiment was designed to see how normal people could go along with atrocity and genocide. This, and other psychological experiments, provided an explanation for how "good" people may go along (and even perpetrate) bad things. These experiments demonstrated how people often yield to authority, which may be someone with an authoritative role or even just a majority of people.

Will the students succumb to peer pressure? This is the exciting question that our interactive game will answer! By playing this game with your class, you will actively engage them in the lesson and make the learning experience more dynamic and memorable.

Materials:

• Lower Elementary Version
  o A hard surface floor for dribbling
  o Several basketballs (one per group of three to five students)

• Upper Elementary Version
  o Whatever implements are needed to practice the skill you are focusing on like soccer balls, tennis rackets and tennis balls, basketball, etc.

• Middle School Version

  o Tennis rackets (at least two, but four is better, and one per student is best)

  o Tennis balls

o A hard playing surface (equipped with a net)

o Portable tennis net(s) if playing in a gym

OR

o Volleyball Net

o At least one volleyball

o If outdoors, cones to mark the playing area

Minimum Number of Students Needed:

For lower and upper elementary, this lesson could be done with as few as four people. If you have a whole class, make groups of four and make sure every group has a young student who will be the “participant.” If you are playing the middle school version, you will need at least eight, but a whole class would be better.

Prior Knowledge:

This lesson works well for SEL topics like courage and honesty in lower elementary school. In upper elementary, this lesson will be combined with the scientific method when the students are doing a science fair. In middle school, students might be studying government systems or how power is distributed amongst citizens in a country. This lesson works well whenever a class investigates when populations allow an atrocity to happen because it reveals those people's underlying psychology, which builds understanding and empathy.