Asch’s research Flashcards
Who devised the baseline procedure for studying conformity?
Salomon Asch
Asch’s baseline procedure serves as the foundation for later studies on conformity.
What is the baseline study in Asch’s research?
The original study on conformity against which all later studies are compared.
What variable did Asch investigate related to group influence on conformity?
Group size
Asch varied the number of confederates from one to 15 to assess its impact on conformity.
What was the curvilinear relationship found between group size and conformity?
Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point.
At what point did conformity to the wrong answer rise to 31.8% in Asch’s study?
With three confederates.
What effect did introducing a non-conforming person have on the naïve participant’s conformity?
Conformity decreased to less than a quarter of the level when the majority was unanimous.
What does the presence of a dissenter suggest about conformity?
Non-conformity is more likely when cracks are perceived in the majority’s unanimous view.
How did Asch manipulate task difficulty in his experiments?
By making the stimulus line and comparison lines more similar in length.
What is informational social influence (ISI)?
The tendency to look to others for guidance when the correct answer is unclear.
What limitation did Susan Fiske highlight about Asch’s research?
The task and situation were artificial.
Why might the findings of Asch’s study not generalize to real-world situations?
Participants knew they were in a research study and the task was trivial.
What demographic was primarily represented in Asch’s participants?
American men.
How do collectivist cultures differ from individualist cultures in terms of conformity?
Collectivist cultures may have higher conformity rates due to the importance of social groups.
What did Todd Lucas et al. (2006) find regarding task difficulty and conformity?
Participants conformed more often when solving harder problems.
What counterpoint was found regarding individual factors influencing conformity?
Participants with high confidence in their math abilities conformed less on hard tasks.
What ethical issue was raised concerning Asch’s research?
Participants were deceived about the nature of the study.
What is a potential benefit of Asch’s research despite ethical concerns?
It provided knowledge on why people conform.
