Asch Studies Flashcards
When did it take place
1951
What was the study about
As he felt that Sherifs study did not prove conformity. So he made up a new one.
Why did Asch feel that Sheirfs study did not prove conformity
Asch felt that Sherifs task was too ambiguous and did not give his subjects a simple enough task to prove conformity.
What task did Asch come up with
Aschs task was a simple task of comparing the length of lines.
How was Aschs experiment set up
He got seven to nine of his confederates bold textto state a wrong answer. They all answered with the same wrong answer. The naive subject at the end would answer last to see if he would conform to the groups wrong answer
What were the rates of conformity
32% in his original study
What three factors did Asch change to modify his experiment
Task difficulty, unanimity and group size
What were the rates of conformity for when Asch changed the task difficulty
5.5%
What was the rate of conformity for group unanimity
The group unanimity was the deciding factor if there was a dissenter in the group rates of conformity went as low as 3%.
Why was the group unanimity so important
With the group all agreeing with the same answers it made the naive subject feel isolated. He wanted to conform with the others in order to feel liked or to get the answer right
What type of subjects did Asch use
He used American male students
What did Asch do to improve on Sherif?
He created a pilot study separate from his main experiment. He tested 36 participants individually on 20 slightly different versions of his task.
How many mistakes were made in Aschs pilot study
He ran 720 trials and only 3 mistakes were made
