A Naive Minority of One and Deliberate Majority Mismatches of Tonal Stimuli

Individual conformity to deliberately erroneous majority judgments of pitch and loudness was investigated. A group of 136 university music students, randomly assigned to experimental or control groups, evaluated 18 pitch or loudness items by publicly indicating, after hearing responses of four confederates, which of three tones matched a standard. Results included a .30 overall conformity rate in the experimental group for pitch and a .49 rate for loudness. Comparisons between groups and intrapersonal comparisons generally are highly significant. It was concluded that music students may defy their sensory inputs and yield to erroneous peer judgments. Results of other studies suggesting greater conformity with more ambiguous stimuli are partially confirmed.