Asch Experiment Flashcards
What is the aim of Asch experiment?
Whether individuals would yield to majority influence and give wrong answer when comparing length of lines, in a situation where where the participants would be sure that their own opinion was correct.
What are the procedures?
Participant seated with 6-8 confederates.
Three vertical lines of different lengths labelled A,B,C.
Confederates instructed to give wrong answers.
Participants observed for conformity
White males
What are the findings?
32% of participants gave the wrong answer in the trials.
74% of the participants conformed at least once
What was the reaction of participants during the procedure?
Rubbing their eyes in disbelief.
Giggling
Looking at others for a solution to the mystery
The reasons why participants said they conformed?
I thought my eyes had deceived me
I didn’t want to spoil the experiment
I wanted to fit in the group and not look like an outsider.
Variables affecting conformity?
Group Size- Conformity drops when there’s less confederates.
Unanimity- If one confederate gave the right answer then conformity dropped to 5%.
Task difficulty- When the lines were similar in length conformity increased
How did the experiment lack ecological validity?
Not representative in the real world.
Everyone else is unanimously giving the incorrect response.
How did the experiment lack population validility?
Sample was unrepresentative.
Only white Americans were studied, this means the experiment was ethnocentric.
Only males were studied, this means it is beta biased.
How was the experiment unethical?
Participants did not have informed consent.
They were deceived.
