Asch’s Conformity Experiment Flashcards
What was the aim of Asch’s experiment?
To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.
What was the method of Asch’s experiment?
Asch used a lab experiment with one real participant and 7 confederates. Everyone was asked to say aloud which comparison line was most like the target line in a line judgment test. The confederates were asked to say the wrong answer to see if the real participant would agree with the, clearly wrong, majority or say the correct answer. The participant always answered last to see if they would say the incorrect answer due to group pressure.
What were the results of Asch’s experiment?
75% of the participants conformed at least once and 25% never conformed.
What did Asch conclude from his experiment?
Majority of the participants conformed with the group to avoid being ridiculed, this is an example of normative social influence.
What are weaknesses of Asch’s study?
- The sample = Asch used 50 male American’s in the same age group. Sample was biased, results can’t be generalised.
- Deception = raises ethical issues, participants were not protected properly.
- Study lacked ecological validity = conducted in a lab with artificial settings.
- Task lacked mundane realism = not a real life example of conformity.
What is a strength of Asch’s study?
A strength of the study is it was a lab experiment. This means that it was tightly controlled and variables could be monitored making the results more reliable.
What are analysis points of Asch’s study?
- Links to Mori and Arai, they looked to update and confirm Asch’s study without confederates.
- Lacked ecological validity
- Lacked mundane realism
- Done in America, can be compared with Mori and Arai done in Japan (culture differences)
- Sample can be compared to Mori and Arai’s sample (all male/some female)
