CONFORMITY: factors affecting conformity

Question 1

How does task difficult affect conformity ?

Answer 1

Conformity increases with task difficulty

In one variation asch made differences between the line lengths much smaller - correct answer was less obvious

In this condition comformity increased

Question 2

how does unanimity of majority affect conformity ?

Answer 2

conformity levels are higher when the group is unanimous.

Asch found that when the naive p was given support from either a real p or confederate who gave the right answer conformity levels dropped to just 5.5%

Asch made a confederate say the wrong answer that was not the right answer but was also different to the wrong answer other confederates were giving- conformity rates dropped to 9% in this condition

This concludes that breaking the groups unanimoius decision is the major factor in conformity reduction

Question 3

how does group size affect conformity ?

Answer 3

Asch found very little confomirty when majority consisted of 1-2 confederates.
When there were 3 confederates

conformity jumped to 30% when increasing number of confederates above 3 the rates didnt change significantly. So a group of 3 is optimum for conformity

Question 4

What are the factors affecting conformity?

Answer 4

group size: 3-4 is optimum for conformity

the unanimity of majority - people conform more when everyone agrees

task difficulty