Conformity

Question 1

what is conformity

Answer 1

a change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

Asch’s baseline procedure

Answer 2

Asch devised a procedure to assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others, even in a situation where the answer is unambiguous. The baseline findings show that on average, that participants conformed with the confederates’ incorrect answers 36.8% of the time.

Question 3

what are the 3 variables investigated by Asch?

Answer 3

group size
unanimity
task difficulty

Question 4

Variables investigated by Asch: Group size

Answer 4

Asch varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15. Asch found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity rate. Conformity increased with group size but only up to a point. With three confederates, conformity to wrong answer rose to 31.8%, but presence of more confederates made little difference. This suggests people are sensitive to the views of others, as just one or two confederates was enough to sway opinion

Question 5

Variables investigated by Asch: Task difficulty

Answer 5

Asch increased the difficulty of the line-judging task by making the lines more similar. Asch found conformity increased. It may be that the situation is more ambiguous when the task is harder. In these circumstances, it’s natural to look to other people for guidance and to assume they are right and you are wrong – informational social influence

Question 6

Variables investigated by Asch: Unanimity

Answer 6

Asch introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates. The genuine participant conformed less in the presence of a dissenter. The presence of the dissenter appeared to free the naïve participant to behave more freely. This was true even when the dissenter disagreed with the genuine participant. This suggests that non-conformity is more likely when cracks are perceived in the majority’s unanimous view.

Question 7

Evaluation (brief)

Answer 7

strength - research support for task difficulty HOWEVER more complex
weakness - artificial task and situation
weakness - limited application

Question 8

Strengths

Answer 8

there is research support from other studies for the effects of task difficulty. For example, Lucas et al found participants conformed more often (agreed with wrong answers) when the problems were harder. Therefore, this shows Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one variable affecting conformity. HOWEVER, Lucas et al’s study found conformity is more complex than Asch suggested. Participants with high confidence in their math’s abilities were less likely to conform. This shows that an individual-level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables. But Asch did not research the role of individual factors, limiting the validity of the research.

Question 9

Weaknessess

Answer 9

the task and situation were artificial. The participants knew they were in a study and may have gained demand characteristics. The task of identifying a line was trivial and therefore there was no reason not to conform. Therefore, this means the findings do not generalise to real-world situations, especially those where there are consequence to conformity.

the study has limited application, as the sample was all men, therefore it is androcentric and doesn’t tell us how women may have responded. Research shows that women may be conformist, yet due to the sample this was not studied by Asch. Furthermore, the US is an individualist culture, so the findings are not applicable to other cultures. Research has found that collectivist cultures have higher rates of conformity. Therefore, this shows Asch’s study tells us little about conformity in women and people from other cultures.