Only one student per group was the real participant while the other 5 students were research assistants or confederates of the experimenter. The confederates followed a script that instructed them to make several errors in their judgments. Obviously, the judgments are not difficult to make. Some people have argued that pressure for conformity was much greater in the 1950s than today. However, Asch's study was replicated at the University of Iowa in 1996 and Stanford University in 1998 producing the same results as the original 1955 study.
Compliance is often the result of following social roles, norms or expectations.
Often, the person may privately disagree with the behavior or attitude that she or he expresses publicly. Making a large request that most people will refuse, then when the person is feeling guilty or remorseful about the refusal, make a small request that most people will accept. Obedience - is performing a behavior, even when the person does not want to, because someone else ordered the person to do so. Milgram's obedience studies - Men from New Haven, Connecticut were recruited to participate in the original experiment at Yale University. The sample included truck drivers, accountants, insurance salesmen, plumbers, teachers, etc.