Asch (1940) asked undergraduates to indicate how prestigious politicians were. prior to their rating, one group was told that a sample of fellow students had ranked politicians near the top in prestige, whereas a second group was told that fellow students ranked politicians near the bottom. the participants' ratings were consistent with those of their fellow students. asch suggested that this was because the comparison information activated different for the two groups; one group was thinking of such statesmen as franklin delano roosevelt (fdr) and the other was thinking of corrupt politicians.
a. channel factorsb. schemasc. self-definitionsd. construals