Person
Muzafer Sherif
Psychologist — autokinetic effect conformity study, 1935
Psychologist whose 1935 Harvard study, using the autokinetic effect (a stationary point of light appearing to drift in darkness), was one of the earliest controlled demonstrations that people converge on a shared group judgment even in an ambiguous situation with no objectively correct answer — and retain that group judgment afterward, even when judging privately again. Referenced, not interviewed, in this episode. See Sherif Autokinetic Effect Conformity Study.
Discussed in
- Episode 25 — 25- Coronavirus- The psychology behind panic buying