Conformity- Asch's research Flashcards
procedure
Asch (1951-1955)
- 123 American male undergraduates
- Participants were shown two large white cards at a time on one card was a standard line and on the other card there were three comparison lines
- One of the three lines was the same length as the standard line, the participant was asked which of the three lines matched the standard
- Each naive participant was tested individually with a group of between 6 to 8 confederates
- On the first few trials all the Confederates gave the right answers but then they start making errors
- Each participant took part in 18 trials and on 12 critical trials the Confederates gave the wrong answer
findings
-The naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time, overall 75% conformed at least once
asch’s variations
- group size
- unanimity
- task difficulty
how did group size affect conformity
Ash found that with three Confederates conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8% but the addition of further Confederates made little difference this suggests that a small majority is not sufficient for influence to be exerted but there was no need for more than 3
how did unanimity affect conformity
The presence of a dissenting Confederate meant that conformity was reduced by quarter from when the majority was unanimous the presence of a dissenting that enabled the naive participant to behave more independently this suggests that the influence of the majority depends to some extent on the group being unanimous
how did task difficultly affect conformity
He found that conformity increased under these conditions this suggests that ISI plays a greater role when the task becomes harder, we are more likely to look to other people for guidance
A child of its time
Perrin and Spencer (1980)- repeated the study with engineering students, only 1 student conformed in a total of 396 trials
Artificial situation and task
Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with the demand of the situation (demand characteristics) the task of identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason not to conform
-Friske (2014) ‘the groups weren’t very groupy’ findings don’t generalise to everyday situations
Limited application of findings
Asch only tested American men, similar conformity studies conducted in china for example showed higher conformity rates showing Aschs study can only be generalised to American men
Findings only apply to certain situations
The fact the participants had to answer out loud and were with a group of strangers who they wanted to impress might mean that conformity was higher than usual
-Williams (1984) Found conformity was higher when the majority of the group were friends than when they were strangers
ethical issues
The naive participants were deceived however it is worth bearing in mind that this ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study
