Lesson 3 - Key Studies in Sherif and Asch Flashcards
Who performed the three key studies for conformity?
Jenness, Sherif, Asch
What was the aim of Jenness’ study?
To examine whether individuals will change their opinion in an ambiguous situation.
What was the method of Jenness’ study?
Jenness used an ambiguous situation, that had a glass bottle filled with 811 white beans. His sample consisted of 26 students, who all individually estimated the amount of beans in the jar.
They then were placed into groups of 3, and had to provide a group estimate. This was to see if they would change their original estimate.
What were the results of Jenness’ study?
Jenness found that nearly all participants changed their original answer. On average, males changed their answer by 256 beans, and females by 382 beans. The range of the whole group went from 1875, down to 474 after the discussions, which is a decrease of 75%.
This shows that ISI did take effect.
What was the aim of Asch’s study?
Asch wanted to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a group could affect a person to conform.
What was the method of Asch’s study?
Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity.
He used 123 male US undergraduates and got them to participate in a ‘vision test’.
It was a line judgement task.
There was one participant and 8 confederates in a room. The confederates agreed that they would answer incorrectly, and unanimously. The participants did not know this, and also thought all the other confederates were ordinary participants.
Each person had to state aloud which comparison line they chose (A, B or C), and the answer was always obvious. The real participant was always made to be the last one to answer.
Asch ran 18 trials, and confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 of them. (12 critical trials)
What were the results of Asch’s study?
Asch measured the number of times each participant conformed. On average, one third 35% of the participants conformed to the incorrect majority.
75% of the participants conformed at least once, and 25% never conformed.
In the control trials, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.
Asch showed that compliance can occur due to NSI.
