Asch's Line Study + Variables Affecting Conformity

Question 1

What was the method of Asch’s line study?

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

What was Asch’s findings?

Answer 2

• 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

Question 3

What was Asch’s conclusion?

Answer 3

Ppts will conform to group’s beh even when they know answer is wrong - demonstrating desire to be liked does infact lead to conformity

Question 4

What are the two limitations of Asch’s study?

Answer 4

• the study was artificial
• presents several ethical concerns

Question 5

A limitation of Asch’s research - study was artificial

Answer 5

Fiske (2014) - group that genuine ppts were in is very different to groups typically encountered in everyday 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 - insignificant compared to real life situations involving pressure to conform like making a decision on a jury abt the guilt or innocence of a defendant. Thus, his study only explains conformity in special circumstances - no consequences to conformity + bear little similarity to real life. Therefore - lacks ecological validity + unlikely to inform our understanding of conformity in everyday situations.

Question 6

Limitation - presents several ethical concerns.

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

What are the qualities of an environment (situational variables) that influence levels of conformity in individuals:

Answer 7

• Group size
• Unanimity
• Task difficulty

Question 8

Group size:

Answer 8

• 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.

Question 9

Conformity percentage when there were 3 confederates in Asch’s original study:

Answer 9

31.8%

Question 10

Conformity percentage when there were 4 confederates in Asch’s original study:

Answer 10

35%

Question 11

Unanimity:

Answer 11

• 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%

Question 12

When a confederate who disagreed w/ majority was present, what was the % of conformity?

Answer 12

5.5%

Question 13

Task Difficulty:

Answer 13

• 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.

Question 14

Strength of Asch’s research into the effects of task difficulty is that there is supporting research.

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Weakness of Asch’s research on conformity - all his studies involved a highly artificial task.

Answer 15

The task of matching lines is not representative of real-life situations involving pressure to conform (e.g., making a decision on a jury about the guilt or innocence of a defendant). Therefore, whilst someone may have conformed in the non-consequential setting of a lab experiment - more likely to resist the pressures when the choices have real consequences for them.
WB- Asch’s study only explain conformity in special circumstances with little consequences, thus his studies cannot be generalisable to conformity irl.
Asch’s studies therefore lack ecological validity and are unlikely to inform our understanding of conformity in everyday situations.

Question 16

Asch’s studies can be criticised for using an unrepresentative sample of males from the USA.

Answer 16

One problem using an all-male sample is that there is evidence that women are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted than men (Neto 1995). This may mean they are more conformist than males. Furthermore, the results may not apply to collectivist cultures, which tend to have higher levels of conformity because the focus is on the needs of the group rather than the individual (Smith and Bond, 1996).
WB: This indicates that the conformity rates found in Asch’s different studies on conformity are unlikely to generalise to the wider population; both within and across culture.
Therefore, Asch’s research lacks population validity

Question 17

Weakness of Asch’s variation studies is that they lack temporal validity.

Answer 17

During this time in America people were more likely to conform to social norms due to concerns about the rise of communism. Moreover, Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch’s study several decades later and found much lower rates of conformity compared to Asch’s original study (conformity was found on only one trial out of a total of 396 trials).
WB = it shows that Asch’s findings are not consistent across time and suggests that conformity in general may have been higher when Asch conducted his research.
Therefore, his conclusions about conformity and the variables that affect conformity may not generalisable to modern day behaviour.
Asch’s studies decrease in validity

Question 18

Briefly outline three findings from Asch’s research into conformity.

Answer 18

• 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