Asch’s Research

Question 1

Asch’s procedure

Answer 1

• He tested conformity by showing participants two large white cards at a time. On one card was a ‘standard line’ and on the other were three ‘comparison lines’. One of the lines was the same length as the standard and the other two were always substantially wrong (clearly wrong). The participants were asked which of the three lines matched the standard
• The participants in this study were 123 male American undergraduates. Each naïve participant was tested individually with a group of 6 and 8 confederates, and was not aware that the others were confederates
• There were 18 trials, where 12 were critical trials (which means the confederates all gave the wrong answer)

Question 2

Asch’s findings

Answer 2

• The overall conformity rate for 36.8% (the naïve participant have a wrong answer 36.8% of the time in the critical trials)
• The percentage of participants who never conformed was 25%
• The percentage of participants who conformed at least once was 75%
• When participants were interviewed afterwards, most said they conformed to avoid rejection (normative social influence)

Question 3

Perrin and Spencer (1980)- research against Asch

Answer 3

• They repeated his original experiment in the UK with engineering students
• Only 1 student conformed in a total of 396 trials. It may be that the engineering students felt more confident in measuring lines, and therefore less conformist
• It is also possible that the 1950s were an especially conformist time in America, resulting in conformity to social norms
• Asch’s research may lack temporal validity as society has changed a lot since then

Question 4

Evaluation of Asch’s research

Answer 4

• Artificial stimuli and task: Possibility of demand characteristics. Furthermore, the task of identifying lines is quite trivial so conformity would not be needed. Lacking generalisability to everyday situations
• Limited application of findings: Only men were tested, gender bias, beta bias. Asch’s study was tested in the US (individualistic culture). Similar conformity studies were conducted in more collectivist cultures e.g China and found higher conformity rates.

Question 5

Asch’s variations

Answer 5

• Group size
• Unanimity
• Task difficulty

Question 6

Factors affecting conformity: group size

Answer 6

Asch found that conformity tends to increase as the size of the group increases
- With 1 confederate in the group, conformity was 3%
- With 2 confederates, it increased to 13%
- With 3 or more confederates, it peaked at 33%. Little change in conformity once the group size reaches 4-5

Question 7

Factors affecting conformity: unanimity

Answer 7

• When 1 of the confederates was instructed to give the correct answer throughout, conformity rate dropped to 5.5%
• When 1 of the confederates was instructed to give a different wrong answer, conformity rate still dropped to 9%
• This shows that if you break the group’s unanimous position, then conformity is reduced, even if the answer provided by the supporter is incorrect. It enables the real participant to behave more independently

Question 8

Factors affecting conformity: task difficulty

Answer 8

When comparison lines were made more similar in length, it was harder to judge the correct answer
- When we are uncertain, it seems we look to there for confirmation. Conformity increased, suggesting ISI because the task was more ambiguous