conformity: asch's research Flashcards
what is conformity? (aronson 2011)
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 solomon asch’s (1951) research?
to assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others, even in a situation where the answer is certain
describe asch’s baseline procedure with standard and comparison lines
- 123 american men tested
- each one in a group with other apparent ps
- 2 large white cards with standard line ‘X’ on the left and lines A, B, and C as comparison lines on the right
- 1 comparison lines was always clearly same length as X
- ps had to say out loud which comparison line was same length as X
describe the physical arrangement of the participants in asch’s study
- tested in groups of 6 to 8
- single genuine p always seated either last or next to last
- others ps were confederates who gave incorrect answer each time
- genuine p didn’t know others were ‘fake’
what were asch’s findings based on the baseline study?
- genuine ps agreed with the confederates’ incorrect answer 36.8% of the time
- 25% never gave a wrong answer (ie. never conformed)
- 75% conformed at least once
what 3 variables did asch (1955) investigate that might lead to an increase or decrease in conformity?
- group size
- unanimity
- task difficulty
how was group size changed to be investigated?
number of confederates varied from 1-15 so total group size was 2-16
how did group size affect conformity?
- curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity rate ie. conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point
- with 3 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%
- presence of more than 3 confederates made little difference; conformity rate soon levelled off
what conclusion can be drawn about the effect of group size on conformity?
- most people are very sensitive to the views of others
- just 1 or 2 confederates are enough to sway opinion
how was unanimity changed to be investigated?
- introduced a confederate who disagreed with other confederates
- they either gave the correct answer or a (different) wrong one
how did unanimity affect conformity?
- genuine p conformed less often with dissenter
- naive p was allowed to behave more independently, even when the dissenter disagreed with the genuine p
- rate decreased to less than 1/4 of the level it was when the majority was unanimous
what conclusion can be drawn about the effect of unanimity on conformity?
- influence of majority depends to a large extent on it being unanimous
- non-conformity is more likely when cracks are perceived in majority’s unanimous view
how was task difficulty changed to be investigated?
- increased difficulty of line-judging task by making stimulus and comparison lines more similar in length
- more difficult for genuine p to see differences between lines
how and why did task difficulty affect conformity?
- conformity increased
- situation becomes more ambiguous when task becomes harder
- natural to look to other people for guidance and assume they are right and you are wrong (ISI)
evaluation: demand characteristics
- ps knew they were in a research study
- many have gone along with what was expected
evaluation: task and situation were artificial
- task of identifying lines was trivial
- no reason not to conform
- findings can’t be generalised to real-world situations, as consequences of conformity are important
evaluation: diske (2014)
asch’s groups did not resemble groups we experience in everday life
evaluation: limited application as all of asch’s participants were american
- US is an individualist culture
- people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social group
- in collectivist cultures, social group is more important than individual
- asch’s findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from some cultures
evaluation: bond and smith (1996)
similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures have found higher conformity rates
evaluation: limited application as all of asch’s participants were men (neto 1995)
women may be more conformist possible because they are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted
evaluation: support form other studies for effects of task difficulty (lucas et al. 2006)
- asked p to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems.
- p given answers from 3 other fake students
- p conformed more often when tasks were harder
- supports asch’s claim that task difficulty is a variable that affects conformity
evaluation: limitations of research support
- lucas et al.’s study found that conformity is more complex than asch suggested
- pp with high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence
- an individual-level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables, but asch did not research the role of individual factors
evaluation: ethical issues
- naive participants were deceived as they thought other people involved in the procedure (confederates) were also genuine participants like themselves
- this ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from this study
