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soks86 t1_ito7wee wrote

Reply to comment by SynthPrax in TIL that in a series of experiments in the 1950s, Solomon Asch asked a group of actors and a single test subject what the longest line was in a "vision test". The actors would intentionally answer incorrectly, causing the subject to also answer incorrectly, despite it being very obvious. by Amateur_Validator

Population selection is a big part of experiments with people.

They very much want a selection of people that accurately represent the whole of the group they are studying. They aren't trying to show the limit of people's abilities like a competition might. They're more interested in understanding how "usual" people work because that's what the world is composed of. Having a better understanding of what the world is composed of helps us make decisions with more foresight. Decisions with more foresight should, on average, be better decisions.

Further on the topic, how would you find people who exhibit group-think immunity? If it's by this same experiment then you're just cherry picking your results. You would need to find some other measure by which to select "group-think immune" people and then have them take the test.

I bet if you picked 3 and 4 star generals for the experiment then compared them to the general population you might get something interesting. However that result would provide information on what sort of people become 3 and 4 star generals rather than about "usual" people.

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ShalmaneserIII t1_itpf6vx wrote

> Further on the topic, how would you find people who exhibit group-think immunity?

For that matter, how would you get them to participate in the test properly?

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soks86 t1_itqlxcx wrote

Oh, I think you can use the same testing method.

One could argue the group-think people didn't participate because had they been paying attention they would have the right answer. Or is it that they didn't trust themselves?

I mean, assuming people won't participate is kinda... tangential to the issue?

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