When the New Discipline of Social Psychology was Born at the Beginning GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question:

When the new discipline of social psychology was born at the beginning of this century, its first experiments were essentially adaptations of the suggestion demonstration. The subjects, usually college students, were asked to give their opinions or preferences concerning various matters; sometime later they were again asked to state their choices, but now they were also informed of the opinions held by authorities or large groups of their peers on the same matters. (Often the alleged consensus was fictitious.) Most of these studies had substantially the same result: Confronted with opinions contrary to their own, many subjects apparently shifted their judgments in the direction of the view of the majorities or the experts. Other studies reported that people’s evaluations of the merit of a literary passage could be raised or lowered by ascribing the passage to different authors. Apparently, the sheer weight of numbers or authority sufficed to change opinions, even when no arguments for the opinions themselves were provided.

Now the very ease of success in these experiments arouses suspicion. Did the subjects actually change their opinions, or were the experimental victories scored only on paper? On grounds of common sense, one must question whether opinions are generally as watery as these studies indicate. There is some reason to wonder whether it was not the investigators who, in their enthusiasm for a theory, were suggestible and whether the ostensibly gullible subjects were not providing answers that they thought good subjects were expected to give.

The investigations were guided by the underlying assumptions that people submit uncritically and painlessly to external manipulation by suggestion or prestige, and that any given idea or value can be “sold” or “unsold” without reference to its merits. We should be skeptical, however, of the supposition that the power of social pressure necessarily implies uncritical submission to it; independence and the capacity to rise above group passion are also open to human beings. Further, one may question on psychological grounds whether it is possible to change a person’s judgment of a situation or an object without first changing his or her knowledge or assumptions about it.

‘When the new discipline of social psychology was born at the beginning’’ is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions.

The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analysing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Questions and Solutions

1. The first experiments in social psychology appeared to demonstrate all of the following EXCEPT that

1. many people will agree with what they believe to be the opinion held by the majority of their peers.
2. many people will agree with what they believe to be the opinion of experts.
3. many people change their opinions given good arguments for doing so.
4. an individual’s evaluation of a literary work can be altered by ascribing the work to a different writer.
5. college students’ opinions can be changed.

2. The author implies that persons who altered their opinion on a controversial topic have most likely done so because they

1. have been influenced by overt social pressures.
2. have been influenced by covert external manipulation.
3. have learned more about the topic.
4. have learned how experts judge the topic.
5. are incapable of independent thought.

3. The main point of the passage is to

1. question some assumptions about the influence of social pressures.
2. show that a judgment of a situation cannot change without a change in the knowledge of the situation.
3. demonstrate the gullibility of psychological investigators and their subjects.
4. question the notion that any idea can be “sold” or “unsold.”
5. support investigation into ideas of propaganda.

4. With which of the following ideas would the author be most likely to agree?

1. Human beings can be programmed like machines.
2. Women are more likely to agree with men than with other women.
3. Women are more likely to agree with other women than with men.
4. Like women, men are capable of independent thought.
5. Like men, women submit uncritically to external manipulation.

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