Asch’s Line Study

Question 1

Which social influence is Aschs study research evidence for?

Answer 1

Informational social influence

Question 2

When was the study conducted?

Answer 2

1951

Question 3

What was the aim of the experiment?

Answer 3

To see whether people would conform to the majority in a situation where they could be no doubt about the correct answer to a question

Question 4

Explain the procedure of the study.

Answer 4

• 123 male college students were studied
• He showed a pair of cards to 7 people seated around a table. On one card was a single test line and on the other were three comparison lines
• Participants were asked to say out loud which of the comparison lines was equal in length to the test line. The correct judgement was always obvious
• Only one of the seven people was a true participant, the other six were confederates of Asch
• The participant was seated near the end of the table and was always second to last to answer
• The confederates were asked to say an incorrect answer on 12 out of the 18 trials

Question 5

What were the findings of the study?

Answer 5

• 36.8% would always conform to the unambiguous view of the majority
• 75% conformed at least once
• 25% never conformed, although did mostly experience tension and doubt
• A small minority claimed that they’d actually perceived the incorrect line as the correct answer
• Most participants conformed as they thought their perception must be inaccurate
• Some conformed as they could not bear to be in a minority

Question 6

What was the conclusion of this study?

Answer 6

Asch concluded that there are conformity effects in unambiguous situations and that group pressures to conform are much stronger than had been thought previously
People may go along with the views of others for different reasons

Question 7

What are the strengths of this study?

Answer 7

• Research support (Lucas et al. 2006)
• High internal validity and replicability
• It proved the aim that people give into social pressure

Question 8

What are the limitations of this study?

Answer 8

• Lacks ecological validity and mundane realism
• Highly androcentric: only males
• Limited sample
• Other research to go against it (Perrin and Spencer, 1980)

Question 9

When were the variations of Asch’s study carried out?

Answer 9

1955

Question 10

Explain the group size variation.

Answer 10

• To investigate whether group size affected conformity
• Varied number of confederates ranging from 1 to 15
• Curvilinear relationship
• Peaked at 3 confederates (31.8% conformity)
• Conformity rate levelled off afterwards

Question 11

Explain the unaminity variation.

Answer 11

• He introduced a dissenter who disagreed with the majority
• Sometimes they would give them the same answer as the participant or a separate wrong answer
• The participants conformed less with a dissenter
• Suggests that influence largely depends on the extent of unanimity

Question 12

Explain the task difficulty variation.

Answer 12

• He increased the difficulty of the task by placing the lines closer together
• Asch found that conformity increased as the situation became more ambiguous
• In these circumstances, it’s natural to look to other people for guidance to assume that they’re right