Asch's Research into Conformity

Question 1

When did Asch conduct his study?

Answer 1

1951.

Question 2

What did Asch aim to test?

Answer 2

If people would conform to group pressure; even if it meant giving a clearly wrong answer in an unambiguous line judgement task.

Question 3

What was Asch’s sample in the study?

Answer 3

123 American male undergraduates.

Question 4

What was the sample shown?

Answer 4

A series of lines; the ‘standard line’ and 3 comparison lines, one of which was the same length as the standard line.

Question 5

How many males were tested at a time?

Answer 5

7 males.

Question 6

Out of the 7 males in each test, how many were confederates?

Answer 6

6 of the 7 males were confederates, there was only one true participant.

Question 7

On how many trials did Asch instruct the confederates to give a wrong answer?

Answer 7

12 out of 18.

Question 8

What did Asch call the trials where the wrong answer was purposely said by the confederates?

Answer 8

Critical trials.

Question 9

Where was the true participant sat in the study?

Answer 9

Second to last within the row.

Question 10

What was the mean conformity rate that Asch found?

Answer 10

37%.

Question 11

What percentage of participants conformed on every critical trial?

Answer 11

5%.

Question 12

What percentage of participants did not conform to any of the critical trials?

Answer 12

25%.

Question 13

What did Asch find in a control group of participants who were tested individually?

Answer 13

They gave incorrect answers in 1% of the trials.

Question 14

How did Asch explain his findings?

Answer 14

That the participants would agree with the majority (say the wrong answer purposely with the majority) to avoid standing out from the crowd.

Question 15

What did Asch conclude?

Answer 15

Participants were showing ‘compliance’.

Question 16

What are the three variables that Asch further studied to investigate their affects on conformity?

Answer 16

• Unanimity.
• Group Size.
• Task Difficulty.

Question 17

What is unanimity?

Answer 17

The extent to which all members of a group agree.

Question 18

When the majority group are unanimous, is the pressure to conform at its highest or lowest?

Answer 18

Highest.

Question 19

When testing unanimity, what did he provide the real participant with?

Answer 19

A dissenter (non-conformist ally).

Question 20

What did the dissenter do in the experiment?

Answer 20

The dissenter provided either the correct answer or a different incorrect answer?

Question 21

What did Asch find when a dissenter was present?

Answer 21

The conformity rate dropped from 37% to average 25%.

Question 22

What did Asch conclude about unanimity?

Answer 22

That when a group’s unanimity is broken, it is a major variable in reducing conformity.

Question 23

How did Asch manipulate the group size in his study?

Answer 23

He made a small group of 1 or 2 confederates give the wrong answer.

Question 24

What did Asch find when he manipulated the group size in his study?

Answer 24

Conformity rates were very low but when the participant was under pressure from 3 confederates, the conformity rates increased to 32%.
Further increases in size majority did not increase conformity by much.

Question 25

What did Asch conclude about the effect of group size?

Answer 25

Size of the majority is important but only up to a point.

Question 26

What is argued about the difficulty of the task and how it affects conformity?

Answer 26

That if the situation is more difficult (ambiguous), a person is more likely to conform.

Question 27

Why are people more likely to conform when the task is difficult (ambiguous)?

Answer 27

They are less confident in their own opinion and therefore are more likely to look to others to provide guidance.

Question 28

What did Asch find when he made the line judgement task more difficult?

Answer 28

Conformity rate increased.

Question 29

What are the 7 evaluation points for Asch’s study and his variables?

Answer 29

+ High degree of control.
- Perrin + Spencer (1981 - in Britain 1 person conformed).
+ Easy to replicate.
- Low ecological validity.
- Suffers from demand characteristics.
- Contains elements of deception.
+ However could not gain realistic results without deception.

Question 30

Which evaluation point ONLY applies to Asch’s original research?

Answer 30

+ It was easy to replicate (test the variables).