A new study uses advanced brain-scanning technology to cast light onto a topic that 【M1】______
psychologists have puzzled over more than half a century: social conformity. The study 【M2】______
was based on a famous series of laboratory experiment from the 1950's by a social psy 【M3】______
chologist, Dr. Solomon Asch. In those early studies, the subjects were shown two cards.
On the first was a vertical line. On the second were three lines, one of them the same length
with that on the first card. Then the subjects were asked to say which two lines were 【M4】______
like, something that most 5-year-olds could answer correctly. But Dr. Asch added a twist. 【M5】______
Seven other people, in cahoots with the researchers, also examined the lines and gave
their answers before the subjects did. And sometimes these confederates unconsciously 【M6】______
gave the wrong answer. Dr. Asch was astonished at what happened next.. After thinking 【M7】______
hard, three out of four subjects agreed with the incorrect answers given by the confederates 【M8】______
at least once. And one in four conformed 50 percent of the time. Dr. Asch, who died
in 1996, always wondered about the findings. Did the people who gave in to group do so
knowing that their answers was right? Or did the social pressure actually change their
perceptions? The researchers found that social conformity showed up in the brain like 【M9】______
activity in regions that are entirely devoted to perception. But independence of judgment
m standing up for one' s beliefs M showed up as activity in brain areas involved in emotion,
the study found, suggesting that there be a cost for going against the group. 【M10】______
【M1】