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Solomon E. Asch (September 14, 1907 - February 20, 1996) was a world-renowned American Gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, and emigrated to the United States in 1920. He received his bachelor's degree from the College of the City of New York in 1928. At Columbia University, he received his master's degree in 1930 and Ph.D. in 1932. He was a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College for 19 years, working with psychologists including Wolfgang Köhler.

He became famous in the 1950s, following experiments that showed how the effect of social pressure can make a person express an obviously wrong opinion.

He inspired the work of the controversial psychologist Stanley Milgram, who drew on his work in conducting research on conformity for his Ph.D., awarded by Harvard University.

His papers are held at AHAP (location M2867-M2881)

Notable contributions[]

See also[]

Publications[]

Books[]

Book Chapters[]

  • Asch, S.E. (1951) Effects of group pressure on the modification and distortion of judgements. In: H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, Leadership and Men, Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press.

Papers[]

  • Asch, S.E. (1948) The doctrine of suggestion, prestige and imitation in social psychology, Psychological Review 55: 250-76.
  • Asch, S.E. (1956) Studies of independence and conformity: a minority of one against a unanimous majority, Psychological Monographs 70: no. 9.
  • Asch, S. E. (1946) Forming impressions of personality, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 41: 258-90.


Further reading[]

  • Rock,I (1990) The Legacy of Solomon Asch. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Hillsdale, New Jersey Hove and London
  • Levine, JM {1999}Solomon Asch's Legacy for Group Research. Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 3, No. 4, Pages 358-364


External links[]


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