asch's research into conformity Flashcards
what is conformity ?
a change in person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group on individuals (Aronson 2011)
why did asch take part in this research ?
- as he was horrified and fascinated with why people seemed to go along with behaviours that they knew were wrong
- interested him on why people conform inspired his research
what research did asch study ?
Asch’s Baseline Study (1951)
what was the aim of asch’s study ?
to examine the extent to which social pressure to conform from unanimous majority affects conformity in an unambiguous situation
what was the procedure of asch’s baseline study ?
- tested conformity by showing participants 2 large white cards at a time
ONE CARD - was a ‘standard line’ and on the other cards there were 3 ‘comparison lines ‘
one of the 3 lines was the same length as the standard and the other 2 were always substantially different - the participant was asked which of the 3 lines matched the standard
what was asch’s research set-up ?
123 AMERICAN male participants were tested , in a group with other apparent ‘participants’
- each naive participant was tested individually with a group of between 6 and 8 confederates
- the naive participant wasn’t aware that the others were confederates
draw a diagram of what the set up was with the participants ?
find in textbook
- the genuine p was always seated either last or (as here) next to last in the group . participants gave their answers out loud, one at a time , beginning with the 1st person
what was occuring during asch’s research ?
- on the 1st few trials the confederates gave the rigth answer but then they started making errors
- all the confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer (out loud)
how many trials did a participant take part in ?
- took part in 18 trials and on 12 ‘critical trials; the confederates gave the wrong answer
how many times did a genuine participant conform ?
36.8 % of the time ( gave the wrong answer)
what was the conforming rate of participants ?
overall 25 % of the participants did not conform on any trials , which means that 75 % conformed at least once
what term has been used to describe the result ?
asch’s term - the extent to which participants conform even when the situation is ambiguous
what was said by participants afterwards ?
most said they conformed to avoid rejection ( normative social influence)
what was asch further interested in ?
the conditions that might lead to an increase or decrease in conformity
what did he do as a result in his interest ?
he investigated these by carrying out some variations of his original procedure
define group size in terms of conformity
- asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates
- thus increasing the size of the majority
- conformity increased with group size BUT only up to a point
- leveling off when the majority was greater than 3
what does it mean by ‘leveling off by 3’?
- increasing the group size beyond 3 confederates (the majority) didn’t significantly increase conformity rates
what was the main findings of asch’s research investigating group size ?
- 1 confederates - real participants conformed just 3 % of the critical trials
- 2 confederates - the real participants conformed on 12.8 % of the critical trials
- 3 confederates saw a rise in conformity to 31.8 %
- the presence of more than 3 made little difference it started to level out
what does the findings of his research show?
- shows that people are very sensitive to the view of others, because it only took a few confederates to sway someone
how did asch carry out his research with group size ?
varied the number of confederates from 1-15
what relationship did asch find between the 2 variables ?
a curvilinear relationship
- suggests that group size affects conformity
define unanimity in terms of conformity
- the extent to which all the members of a group agree
- in asch’s studies , the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same camparsion line
- this produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naive participants
how does unamity lead to produce the greatest degree of conformity ?
- as all majority of members gave the same answer even though it was incorrect
- creates a completely united group consensus
hence increases the pressure on naive p to conform
what does dissenter mean ?
an individual who goes against the majority opinion in a group
how did he carry out the research investigating unamity ?
- he introduced a confederate who disagreed with others
- sometimes the confederate gave the correct answer and sometimes he gave the wrong one
what was the main findings of asch’s research investigating unamity ?
- conformity dropped by : 5 % - correct and 9 % - incorrect
what does his findings show investigating unamity ?
- social support can reduce the pressure to conform and allow us to be independent
define task difficulty according to conformity
asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes harder to work out the correct answer
- conformity is increased
AS naive participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right
what was the main findings of asch’s research investigating task difficulty ?
conformity increased when the task was considered harder
how did he carry out the research investigating task difficulty ?
- making the line-judging task more difficult
- by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length
what does the findings of his research show in task difficulty ?
as the task becomes more ambiguous people tend to look for others guidance and assume that they are right
what is the findings of his research show defined as ?
informational social influence
- as conforming to people in order to be right , rather to fit in is called
