Conformity - Asch's research Flashcards
define conformity
Conformity- a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people
define group size
Group size - asch increased the size of the group by adding or confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority. Conformity increased the group size but only up to a point, levelling off when the majority was greater than three
define unanimity
the extent to which all the members in the group agree. In Asch’s studies , the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line. This produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naive participants
define task difficulty
Task difficulty - Asch’s line - judging tasks is more difficult when it becomes harder work to work out the correct answer. Conformity increased because naive participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right
what did Solomon Asch do (1951)?
he devised a procedure to assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others ,
even in a situation where the answer is certain
why is his procedure described as a baseline study?
because it is the one against which all the later studies were compared to
why did Asch (1955) extend his baseline study?
to investigate the variables that might lead to an increase or decrease in conformity
what did Asch want to know about group size?
Asch wanted to know if group size would be more important than the agreement of the group
how did Asch test the size of the group?
To test this, he varied the number of confederates from one -15 (in total 16)
what did Asch find from his results?
Asch found a curvilinear relationship between the group size and conformity rate
Conformity increased with group size , but only up to a point
When three confederates , conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%
But the presence of more confederates made a little difference, the conformity rate soon levelled off
therefore, what did Asch conclude from the group size ?
This suggests that most people are very sensitive to the views of others because just one or two confederates was enough to sway one’s opinion
what else did Asch want to see could affect conformity?
Unanimity - Asch wondered if the presence of a non-conforming person would affect the naïve participants’ conformity.
explain what Asch did to test unanimity?
He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates
In one variation of the study, this person gave the correct answer and in another variation he gave the wrong one
The genuine participant conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter
The rate decreased to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous
The presence of the dissenter appeared to free the naive participant to behave more independently
This was true even when the dissenter disagreed with the genuine participant
what did Asch conclude?
This suggests that the influence of the majority depends to a large extent on it being unanimous. And that non-conformity is more likely when cracks are perceived in the majority’s unanimous view
what did Asch think about task difficulty?
Asch wanted to know whether making the task harder would affect the degree of conformity
how did Asch measure the affect of task difficulty?
He increased the difficulty of line- judging task by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar to each other in length.
This meant it became harder for the genuine participants to see the differences between the lines
Asch found that conformity increased
It may be that the situation is more ambiguous when the task becomes harder
It is unclear to the participants what the right answer is
therefore , what did Asch conclude from this ?
In these situations, it is natural to look to other people for guidance and to assume that they are right and you are wrong - this is called Informational Social Influence
what was a limitation of Asch’s research?
One limitation of Asch’s research is that the task and situation were artificial
why was it a limitation?
Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expected demand characteristics
The task of identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason not to conform
what did Susan Fiske say?
according to Susan Fiske (2014) ‘Asch’s groups were not very groupie’ - they did not really resemble groups that we experience in everyday life
therefore, what does this mean ?
the findings do not generalise to real world situations - especially those where the consequence of conformity might be important
what is another limitation of Asch’s study?
all the participants were american men
why is this a problem?
other research suggests that women may be more conformist - maybe because they are concerned about social relationships and being accepted (neto 1995)
what is a problem about the culture?
the US is an individualist culture - people are more concerned about themselves rather than social groups
conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures -such as china have found conformity rates are higher
therefore , what does this mean?
that Asch’s findnings tell us little about conformity in women and people from some other cultures
what is a strength of Asch’s study?
support form other studies for the effects of task difficulty
example of the strength?
Todd Lucas asked their participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths questions.
participants were given answers from three students (not actually real)
the participants conformed more often (agreeing with the wrong answers) when the problems were harder
therefore, what does this show?
that Asch was correct in claiming that the task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity
what is a counterpoint of this idea?
Lucas’s study found that conformity is more complex than Asch suggested
- participants with high confidence in their maths conformed less than those with low confidence
therefore , what does this suggest?
that an individual level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables (e.g. task difficulty)
But Asch did not research the role of individual factors
