Asch's Line Study + Variables Affecting Conformity Flashcards
(18 cards)
What was the method of Asch’s line study?
- male US undergraduates - took part in what they thought was study of visual perception
- 7 ppl sat looking at display +had to say out loud which one of 3 lines was same length as given stimulus line.
- correct answer was always obvious
- all ppts except for 1 were confederates
- genuine ppt was always second to last to answer + confederates gave same wrong answer on most trials
What was Asch’s findings?
- Naive ppts conformed to wrong answer on 37% of trials
- 75% of ppts conformed at least once
- The control group conformed less than 1% of the time
What was Asch’s conclusion?
Ppts will conform to group’s beh even when they know answer is wrong - demonstrating desire to be liked does infact lead to conformity
What are the two limitations of Asch’s study?
- the study was artificial
- presents several ethical concerns
A limitation of Asch’s research - study was artificial
- Group that genuine ppts were in is very different to groups typically encountered in real life, which tend to be ppl we r familiar w (e.g., friends or colleagues)
- Task of matching lines - little to do w everyday life experiences and is inconsequential. Findings are insignificant compared to real life situations involving pressure to conform like a real life courtcase.
- Therefore - lacks ecological validity + unlikely to inform our understanding of conformity in everyday situations.
Limitation - presents several ethical concerns.
Asch’s real ppts didn’t provide fully informed consent prior to study - deceived abt key aspects of experimental procedures. Ppts not informed the purpose of research was to investigate conformity (in order to obtain valid results) - led to believe study was investigating visual perception. Naïve ppts also thought other ppts were genuine - when in fact they were confederates whose responses were deliberately inaccurate on most trials. Therefore - research violates number of ethical guidelines - reducing credibility.
What are the qualities of an environment (situational variables) that influence levels of conformity in individuals:
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Task difficulty
Group size:
- conformity rates increase as size of majority influencing the person increases
- but - comes a point where further increases in size of majority doesn’t lead to further increases in conformity
- Asch - 3 confederates - 31.8% conformity to wrong answer - adding one more confederate only increased this to 35% - no further increases as more confederates were added up to 15.
Conformity percentage when there were 3 confederates in Asch’s original study:
31.8%
Conformity percentage when there were 4 confederates in Asch’s original study:
35%
Unanimity:
- unanimity = degree the group members of majority are in agreement w/ each other.
- conformity rates decline when majority influence is not unanimous
- Asch - presence of confederate who disagreed w/ majority and gave diff answer reducing conformity to 5.5%
When a confederate who disagreed w/ majority was present, what was the % of conformity?
5.5%
Task Difficulty:
- conformity increases when task difficulty increases- right answer becomes less obvious - confidence in our own judgment drops
- Asch increased task difficulty - making comparison lines similar in length - correct answer less obvious - ppts more likely to conform to wrong answer - demonstrating effect of task difficulty on conformity.
Strength of Asch’s research into the effects of task difficulty is that there is supporting research.
Lucas et al (2006) asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult. Students were more likely to give the wrong answer (conform to the people around them when the questions were difficult rather than when they were easy ones). This was especially true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor- supports Asch’s findings by providing further evidence that when a task is made more difficult conformity levels increase. Lack of ability also increases levels of conformity.
Increases validity of Asch’s findings.
Weakness of Asch’s research - study was artificial.
- Group that genuine ppts were in is very different to groups typically encountered in real life, which tend to be ppl we r familiar w (e.g., friends or colleagues)
- Task of matching lines - little to do w everyday life experiences and is inconsequential. Findings are insignificant compared to real life situations involving pressure to conform like a real life courtcase.
- Therefore - lacks ecological validity + unlikely to inform our understanding of conformity in everyday situations.
Weakness of Asch’s studies: uses an unrepresentative sample of males from USA
- Neto: women are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted than men - may mean women r more conformist
- Smith and Bond - results may not apply to collectivist cultures which tend to have higher levels of conformity bc the focus is on the needs of the group rather than the individual.
- WB: Conformity rates found in Asch’s studies are unlikely to generalise to wider population, both within and across culture
- Therefore research lacks population validity.
Weakness of Asch’s variation studies: lack temporal validity
- During this time in America, ppl more likely to conform to social norms due to concerns about rise of communism.
- Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch’s study several decades later and found much lower rates of conformity (1/396 trials)
- WB: findings are not consistent across time - conformity in general may have been higher when Asch conducted his research
- Therefore, his conclusions may not be generalisable to modern day behaviour
- Asch’s studies decrease in validity.
Briefly outline three findings from Asch’s research into conformity.
- naïve participants gave a wrong answer about 37% of the time
- participants conformed on 32% of critical trials
- 25% of participants did not conform/75% conformed at least once
- 5% conformed every time
- the control group conformed (less than) 1% of the time
- increasing the size of the majority increased conformity
- increasing task difficulty increased conformity
