Lesson 3: Key studies in conformity

Question 1

Jenness (1932) was a study that supported ISI and internalisation - what was the procedure and results?

Answer 1

811 white beans, 26 students with individual estimation, groups of 3 were asked to provide a group estimate, nearly all participants changed their original answer.
Male participants changed their answers by 256 beans and female participants changed their answers by 382 beans.
Range of the whole group went from 1,875 to 474 - decrease of 75%.

Question 2

Sherif’s (1935) Autokinetic Effect Experiment supported ISI - what was the procedure and results?

Answer 2

PART 1:
AE - when a small spot of light will appear to move. Individual testing showed range of 20-80 cm.
When tested in groups of 3 (2 similar answers, 1 different), the 1 different would conform to the other 2, resulting to a common estimate.

PART 2:
The participants were placed in groups and were made to agree on a group answer. When individuals were taken from this group, their answers were very similar to the group norm - they had internalised the group norm.

Question 3

Asch (1951) supported NSI and compliance - what was the procedure and results?

Answer 3

123 male US undergraduates participated in a line judgement task, where 1 target line was placed next to 3 comparison lines. There were 7-8 confederates and 1 real participant who was always placed second last or last. Each person had to say their answers out loud. There were 18 trials in total, and 12 were critical trials. Asch also had a control group which only consisted of a real participant. The answer was always obvious, but the confederates would agree on one wrong answer.

Around 32-36% (35% given figure) of the participants conformed to the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials. 75% conformed at least once, and 25% never conformed. Control group had less than 1% give the wrong answer.