asch line experiment Flashcards
participants
123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; consisting of 1 true
participant and 5 confederates (actors/people in on the experiment)
aim
To investigate conformity and majority influence
findings
36.8% conformed
25% never conformed
75% conformed at least once
factors affecting conformity
group size
unanimity of majority
task difficulty
group size
when there is more than 3 people in the group stating something that is obviously wrong then people will become suspicious
a big party nay mean people don’t conform
unanimity of group
someone is more likely to conform if the group all agree on one answer that collectively is the same
the more unanimous the group is the more confident the pp is that everyone else is correct
nsi as people don’t want conflict to arise
evidence of unanimity of group
when the pp (in a variation) had a confederate who said all the correct answers conformity fell from 32% to 5.5%
task difficulty
more likely to conform when the task is more difficult as we are more uncertain about our answer so we look to others for confirmation in our answers
evaluation of acsh- strengths (2)
lab experiment- variables are strictly controlled meaning there are no extraneous variables interfering and its easily replicable
supports normative social influence- pp reported that they conformed to fit in with the group supporting nsi as this states people conform outwardly when they may privately disagree
evaluation of asch- limitations (2)
lacks ecological validity- based on peoples perceptions of lines so findings cant be generalised to real life as it doesn’t reflect the real complexity of conformity
lacks population validity- this can only be applied to american men who are undergrads which is a small sample size so it cannot be generalised
lucas 2006
found that when presented with difficult maths problems to solve, participants were more likely to conform to the majority answer, showing that people will conform due to the need for information (ISI
