Conformity

Question 1

What did Asch find on Conformity in his baseline study?

Answer 1

Naive participants conformed 36.8% of the time
Showing a high level of conformity when the situation is ambiguous

25% Never conformed

75% Conformed at least once

Question 2

What variables were investigated by Asch?

Answer 2

Group Size

Unanimity

Task Difficulty

Question 3

How did group size affect Conformity?

Answer 3

Group size and level of conformity had a curvilinear relationship

2 Confederates - Conformity was 13.6%
3 Confederates - Conformity rose to 32%

• More confederates means more conformity

Question 4

How did Unanimity affect Conformity?

Answer 4

Dissenting confederate which would sometimes give the correct answer or sometimes the incorrect answer, but always disagreed with the majority

Conformity had reduced when the dissenter gave the right or wrong answer

Dissenter allowed the naive participant to act independently

Question 5

How did Task difficulty affect Conformity?

Answer 5

Asch made the line judgment test harder by making the lines similar in length

Conformity increased

The situation is more ambiguous so we are more likely to look to others for the guidance and assume they are right

Question 6

Identify one limitation of Asch Experiment?

Answer 6

The situation and task were artificial
- Lack mundane realism
- Not generalisable to everyday life

Question 7

Identify another limitation of Asch Experiment?

Answer 7

The findings have limited application
-Culture bound test
- Only tested American Men
- US is individualist culture and Collectivist cultures have higher conformity rates

Question 8

Identify one strength of Asch Findings?

Answer 8

There is other evidence support
- Lucas 2006: Maths questions and task difficulty