Aschs Variables*

Question 1

Aschs baseline procedure

Answer 1

• Extent people conformed to the opinion of others, even when they’re wrong
• Naïve participants conformed 36.8% of the time
• 25% never conformed, 75% conformed once

Question 2

Group size

Answer 2

• Groups from 2-16 ppts
• The more confederates, the higher the rate of conformity
• with two, 13.6%. With three, 31.8%. Above three the rate levelled off
• People are sensitive to others views as just 1 confederate was enough to make them conform

Question 3

Unanimity

Answer 3

• Dissenting confederate, sometimes gave right answer, sometimes wrong.
• With a dissenter, conformity reduced the less than a quarter it was.
• Enabled naive ppt to behave more independently

Question 4

Task difficulty

Answer 4

• made lines more similar in length, so more difficult to see differences
• conformity increased
• More ambiguous so we look to others for guidance. Assume they are right and we are wrong
• ISI

Question 5

Limitation- Artificual situation and task

Answer 5

• knew they were in a research study . was a trivial task so no reason to not conform
• Fiske (2014) Groups weren’t like real life groups

Question 6

Limitation- findings have little application

Answer 6

• only american men. Neto suggested women would be more conformist as they are more concerned about social relationships
• in more collectivist cultures eg. china found higher conformity rates
• tells us little about women and other cultures.

Question 7

strengths-evidence to support task difficulty

Answer 7

• Lucas et al ‘easy and hard’ maths questions. Ppts given answers that claimed to be other students
• Conformed more often when questions were harder
• Shows task difficulty is a variable that affects conformity

Question 8

Counterpoint

Answer 8

• Conformity is more complex
• Lucas et als study showed less conformity = higher confidence
• individual factors interact with situational factors