ASCHS FACTORS AFFECTING CONFORMITY - A01 Flashcards
What did Asch find with conformity?
-It was very low when there was one confederate and one real participant, only 3% conformed.
-Two confederates against one participant - 13% conformity.
-3 confederates vs 1 real - 33% conformity.
-However, big groups (such as 15) reduces conformity because they get suspicious.
-Max increase in conformity was with 3-5 confederates ( Stang).
What were the findings on conformity depending on the type of task?
-Campbell and Fairey- where the task relates to personal preference (eg liking a film or movie) , group size has the same linear affect, more people (con) lead to greater conformit.
-When the conformity task has a correct answer (maths question), the increasing size of conf in the group doesn’t have an effect of conformity.
What happens when there was a dissenter breaking the unanimity of the group?
The conformity dropped to drastically to 5.5%.
Any breakdown of unanimity in the group led to reduction in conformity.
Why does Asch think that the dissenter reduces conformity?
- the dissenter supports the participant,increases the the participant’s confidence that they are correct.
-breaks the united front of the rest of the group.
How did Asch test the effects of the dissenter?
-made the dissenter gives the correct answer, providing support for the real participants.
-gave a different answer in front of the whole group, breaking the unanimity of the group.
What did Asch find further with conformity ?
What did Asch find with task difficulty?
In difficult tasks our confidence in our own judgement tends to drop.
How did Asch carry out his research on task difficulty?
-he made the lines different from the original study, making it very hard to tell the difference, (more people conformed with this increased difficulty.
What were other studies to show task difficulty?
Rosander - investigated conformity from 1000 internet members.
Participants were asked questions about general knowledge . Half of the people were confederates and gave the wrong answers.
Increased difficulty also increased conformity in this research too.
