Asch's Line study

Question 1

Describe the procedure of Asch’s line study (1951,1955)

Answer 1

x 123 US undergraduate males in groups of 6-8.
x Only one naive participant and the rest confederates who were instructed to deliberately give the wrong same wrong answer.
x Shown 3 lines and asked to say, out loud, which was the same length as the ‘standard’ line

Question 2

Describe the findings of Asch’s study

Answer 2

x When confederates gave same wrong answer, mean conformity rate= 36.8%
x Participants agreed with wrong answer on a third of the 12 trials

Question 3

What is the effect of group size on conformity?

Answer 3

With 3 confederates conformity INCREASED to 31.8%. Any more and conformity levelled off.

Question 4

What Is the effect of unanimity on conformity?

Answer 4

Conformity REDUCED by a quarter when there was a dissenting confederate giving the right answer or different wrong answer.

Question 5

What is the effect of task difficulty on conformity?

Answer 5

Conformity INCREASED when line-judging task made more difficult

Question 6

What is the strength of Asch’s research?

Answer 6

Scientific lab study- Carried out in a laboratory, in controlled conditions. It provided objective, measurable and quantitative data and used a clear IV (majority of opinion) and a clear DV (% of participants conforming).  Findings drawn from the use of this method have good internal validity.
In addition to this the study can be easily replicated, since it is a laboratory experiment. E.g. Smith et al. (2006) were able to replicate this study, and produce similar results. These replications strengthen support for the original findings into conformity.
Counter- Low in ecological validity The line judgement task was an artificial task which does not reflect conformity in real life. In addition to this the group situation did not resemble groups that we are part of in everyday life.
Hard to generalise the results of Asch to other real life situations, such as why people may start smoking or drinking around friends therefore, these results are limited in their application of everyday life.

Question 7

What are the three limitations of Asch’s study?

Answer 7

Lacks temporal validity:
Asch’s research took place in the 1950s in the US  was in the grip of McCarthyism, a strong anti-communist period when people were scared to go against the majority and so more likely to conform. But society has changed a great deal since then and people are possibly less conformist today.
Perrin and Spencer (1980)- repeated Asch’s study in the UK and found only one conforming response out of 396 trials.

Unrepresentative sample- Males were from the US which is an individualist country and so people may not accurately represent the conformity rates in other, more collectivist cultures.
Smith et al. (2006) analysed Asch-type studies across a number of different cultures and found that conformity was higher amongst collectivist cultures such as Africa and Asia. This could be because in collectivist cultures the social group is more important than the individual.

Ethical issues- Asch’s research broke several ethical guidelines including deception and protection from harm.
The naïve participants were deliberately deceived because they were led to believe that the confederates were also genuine participants when they were not. They were also told that the aim of the experiment was to test their vision and not to investigate conformity.
Participants were not protected from harm and many of them reported feeling stressed when they disagreed with the majority.
Counter- However, Asch interviewed all of his participants following the experiment to overcome this issue.