Ash's study Flashcards
what was his aim?
whether people would stick to what they believed to be right, or cave into the pressure or the majority and go along with its decision
what did he do?
123 American undergraduates were tested in a vision test. All but one of the participants were confederates. Participants were asked to look at 3 lines and say which was the closest length to the standard line. On some of the trials, the rest of the group made the same wrong answer.
what did he find out?
on the 12 trials, 36.8% of the responses made by true participants were wrong. 1/4 of the participants never conformed. A control group showed people make mistakes 1% of the time.
why do people conform? 3 reasons
1) distortion of perception
2) distortion of judgement
3) distortion of action
what does distortion of perception mean?
the participants saw the lines in the same way
what does distortion of judgment mean?
the participants felt doubt about their own judgements
what does distortion of action mean?
privately trusted own judgement’s but changed public behaviour to avoid disapproval.
why did he carry out variations?
to find out which variables had significant effects on the amount of conformity.
asch carried out 3 variations; what were they?
the difficulty of the task
size of the majority
the unanimity of the majority.
VARIATIONS
describe the difficulty of the task
Asch made the differences between line lengths much smaller. The level of conformity increased.
high-self efficacy participants=remained more independent
VARIATIONS
describe the size of the majority
little conformity when the majority consisted of few individuals.
VARIATIONS
describe the unanimity of the majority
when the real participant was given the support of someone who gave the same answer, conformity levels dropped.
criticisms
“is the study a child of its time?”
these findings are unique to one culture and one country. Repeats showed that conformity is more likely when the perceived costs of nonconformity are high.
criticisms
unconvincing confederates
it would have been difficult to act convincingly when giving the wrong answer. So Mori and Arai overcame this by using a technique where participants wore glasses which one was different and saw the lines differently so felt more confident giving the wrong answers.
criticisms
conformity or independence?
only 1/3 of trials where the majority unanimously gave the wrong answer, produced a conforming response. Asch himself believed that his study showed independent behaviour more than conformity.
