Question

In a study, five people are asked to taste test three dishes, one of which tastes like garbage. They must then judge which dish was the best. However, four of the people are confederates and are told to always say that the garbage dish is the best. The real participant (the fifth person) is then asked to give his or her judgment. This study is done in both an individualistic and a collectivistic culture. Based on the results obtained using asch’s paradigm across cultures, what do you expect to happen in this case?

Answer 1

The scenario expected to happen in this case is:

A lot of participants from the individualistic culture would say that the garbage dish is the best one, but even more participants from the collectivistic culture would say the same.

In this case, the fifth person tends to collect the opinions of the four persons individually. This is in order to distinguish whether or not the dish would taste as to what their opinions elaborate.