Conformity Flashcards
What is conformity?
A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
What was the aim of Asch’s study?
To assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others, even in a situation when the answer is certain.
What was the procedure of Asch’s study?
123 American male students
Naive participants tested individually with group of 6-8 confederates
Had to identify length of standard line to 3 comparison lines - 2 clearly wrong
Confederates gave incorrect answers
What were the findings of Asch’s study?
Participants gave wrong answer on 36.8% of critical trials
High level of conformity
75% conformed on at least one trial
25% never conformed
What were the conclusions of Asch’s study?
Most said conformed to avoid rejection (NSI) but continued to trust own private opinion (compliance)
What were the findings when Asch’s varied the group size?
Varied number of confederates
Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point.
With 3 confederates conformity rose to 31.8%
What were the findings when Asch’s varied the unanimity?
Introduced a confederate who disagreed with other confederates
Genuine participant conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter
Enabled people to behave more independently
What were the findings when Asch’s varied task difficulty?
Making stimulus and comparison lines more similar in length
Conformity increased: ISI plays greater role when tasks harder
More ambiguous situation - look to others for what is right
What study shows that Asch’s study lacks temporal validity?
Perrin & Spencer: repeated study with UK engineering students
Only one conformed in 396 trials
Felt more confident about measuring lines than original sample so were less conformist
1950s America: especially conformist time, may be less likely to conform today
Asch effect not consistent across situations/time - not fundamental feature of human behaviour
Asch’s study weakness - artificial task
Knew they were being studied - may have guessed aim and responded to demand characteristics
Trivial task - no reason not to conform
‘Group’ did not resemble most groups in everyday life
Does not generalise to everyday life (consequences more important/interact with groups more directly)
Asch’s study weakness - limited application of findings
Only men tested - ungeneralisable
American participants - individualist culture, cultural bias
No accounted for gender and cultural differences
