Muzafer Sherif is a Turkish American social psychologist. He founded modern social psychology that developed several authentic, powerful techniques for understanding social processes, especially social norms and social conflicts. His experimental research on the autocinetic movement has shown that mental evaluation standards are created by human beings and what influence society has on the development of mental values of the individual.
In a completely dark room, a small light dot on the wall is displayed, and after a few minutes it appears that the dot moves. This shift effect is completely inside the head of the individual, and is the result of the lack of a "reference frame" for the movement. Three participants are in the room and watching a dot, it seems to them that the light dot moves, they are asked to evaluate how much the light dot moves. Each participant in the group says accentuously his assessment, and the answers of all three members of the group converge to the same answer. Thus, three groups changed, one said that a high estimate of the movement of the light dot, the second is medium, and the third low. But, the point is, all members of one group agreed on an identical answer. Their statements about the intensity of moving the light dot were given spontaneously, without discussion and encouragement.
A week later, members of the group were invited to individually re-run the experiment in a dark room with a moving dot, giving identical answers as when they were initially in the group. This shows that the impact of the group is informative and not forced. Their individual perception was the same as when they were members of the group.
This experiment has shown that the social world breaks the skin of individuals and influences the way a person understands his physical and psychological sensations.
