Asch - Situational Factors Flashcards
sometimes were are influenced by others
and conform
sometimes we resist other people’s influence and act
independently
there are two types of factors that affect conformity
situational and dispositional
situational factors are due to the
social situation a person is in
dispositional factors are due to the
internal characteristics
Which factor did Asch investigate?
situational
Study 1
group size
- you might expect that the bigger the majority
the influential it will be
- if more people are needed to conform, this would mean
you are less likely to conform if less people are around you
- Asch study date
1956
- Asch conducted his conformity experiment with
different numbers of confederates as the majority
- two confederates
14% conformed
- three confederates
32% conformed
- no matter how many confederates were present after three
there was little percentage change
- Asch concluded that
smaller majorities were easier to resist but conformity doesn’t increase by how big the group is
Study 2
Unanimity/Social Support
- Asch wanted to see what would happen if the participant
had a supporter
- he ran the experiment where there were more confederates that disagreed but
one that agreed with the participant
- having someone agree with them
broke the unanimity of the group and allowed the participant to resist conforming
- conformity fell to
5.5%
Study 3
Task Difficulty
- Asch decided to see how conformity changed if the task
was more difficult
- How did Asch change the experiment?
he made the line lengths more similar
- What did Asch find?
people are more likely to conform if they are unsure about their answer
