Asch research Flashcards
what was ascots research
the ones with lines of different sizes and male undergraudests naive participants was paired with 6-8 confederates
what were the findings
The naive participant gave the wrong answer 36.8%
The 25% of participants did not conform
75% conformed at least once
Asch effect; the way people conform even when the situation is unambiguous
When asked why they conformed participants were afraid of rejection
Variables investigated by Asch
He vairied group size
Unanimity variables: Difficulty:
He vairied group size
Result curvilinear relationship bwteewn size and conformity. Conformity increased with group size
3 confederates: conformity +31.8 but then comfort rate levelled up
Most people are sensitive to options of others just one or two confederates was enough too sway
2 to 16 were group size
This suggest that most people are sensitive to the views of others because just one or two confederates was enough to sway opines
Unanimity variables:
Influence on the majority depends on the group being unanimous
Naive partipant was more independent even when new confederate gave wrong answers
New people right/ wrong
Difficulty:
Situation is more ambiguous when task becomes harder so right answer is unclear, lines became more similar. It is natural to look to people for guidance and assume that you are wrong and they are right this is know as information social influence
Evaluation
Demand charchterists to please to investigator
Can’t generalise to other situation
Susan fiske Aschs group were not very groups ie they did not really resemble groups that we experience in everyday life
Limited application of findings
Only men tested
Neto women might be more conformist care more about social relationship
Us has a individualist culture
Collectivist cultures
strengths
Is support from other studies for the effect of task diffculty
For example Lucas et all (students agreed more with the wrong answers) when problems where harder
This shows that Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity
counterpoint
Lucas et all found out that it was more complex than arch suggested. For example participants with Hugh confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than thos ewith low confidence.
This shows individual level factors can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables.
Ethical issues
The naive participants were decided because they thought other people invoiced in the produced were also genuine participants like themselves.
