Asch - the comparison line experiment Flashcards
When was Asch’s line experiment conducted?
1951
Explain Asch’s experiment on conformity using the comparison of lines
123 American men were tested, each one in a group with other apparent participants - who were actually 6-8 confederates. The actual participant was seated either last, or second to last. The men were shown 4 lines on large white cards. The line x on the left-hand side is the standard line (stimulus line). The lines A,B and C are the three comparison lines. One of the comparison lines is always clearly the same length as line x, the other two are substantially different (ie. clearly wrong). On each trial the participants (mainly confederates) had to say (out loud) which of the comparison lines was the same length as the standard line x.
What were Asch’s findings in his original line study?
The participants conformed 32% of the time (about 1/3 of the time)
However, there were individual differences - 25% of the participants never gave a wrong answer, and therefore never conformed.
Give 2 limitations of Asch’s original experiment
- The situation and task were artificial - Participants knew they were in a study so there may have been possible demand characteristics. Findings cannot be generalised to everyday situations.
- Only applies to certain groups - Asch only tested on men. Neto (1995) suggested that women might be more conformist- due to being more concerned about social relationships and being accepted. Participants were also all from the USA, an individualist culture. Smith and Bond (1998) suggested conformity rates are higher in collectivist cultures.
Give a strength of Asch’s original experiment
Research support - Lucas et al. (2006) asked participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems. Participants were given 3 answers from 3 other students (not actually real answers). The participants conformed more often (agreed with the wrong answer) when the problems were harder. This shows Asch was correct in claiming that the task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity.
What were Asch’s 3 variables?
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Task difficulty
In what year did Asch do the 3 variable-changed experiments?
1955 - 4 years after his original study
What did Asch want to know about the variable ‘group size’?
Asch wanted to test “whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group”.
How did Asch change the variable ‘group size’?
The number of confederates varied from 1 to 15, rather than 6-8 confederates.
What was Asch’s findings when he changed the variable ‘group size’?
Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point.
With 2 confederates = conformity was 13.6%.
With 3 confederates = conformity increased to 32%
The presence of more confederates made little difference.
What did Asch want to know about the variable ‘unanimity’?
Asch wanted to test “Whether the presence of a non-conforming person would affect the naive participant’s conformity”.
How did Asch change the variable “unanimity”?
A truthful confederate (dissenter) was introduced who disagreed with the incorrect confederates - so the participant had a ‘partner’.
What was Asch’s findings when he changed the variable ‘unanimity’?
Conformity decreased.
The naive participant conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter - it appeared to free the naive participant to behaviour more independently.
What did Asch want to know about task difficulty?
Asch wanted to test “Whether making the task harder would affect the degree of conformity”
How did Asch change the variable “task difficulty”?
He increased the difficulty by making the stimulus line and comparison line more similiar to each other.
