Lesson 3 variables affecting conformity

Question 1

Asch (1951) procedure

Answer 1

Asch (1951) placed a naïve participant (they do not know what the experiment is about) in a group with several confederates (people who pretend to be participants but are actually part of the experiment). The group was asked to look at a ‘standard line’ and then decide individually which of three other ‘test lines’ was the same length as the standard line, without discussing it with one another. They then gave their responses one at a time out loud. The answer was obvious; however, the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 of the 18 trials. The naïve participant was the last, or second to last, one to give their response so they heard the rest of the groups’ responses before giving their own.

Question 2

Asch (1951) findings

Answer 2

The chance of making a genuine mistake on this task was only 1% but 33% of the responses given by participants were incorrect. 75% of participants conformed in at least one of the 18 trials. 5% of participants conformed on every trial but 25% did not conform on any trial. When Asch interviewed his participants afterwards he discovered that the majority of participants who had conformed had continued to trust their own judgment but gave the same answer as the group to avoid disapproval (normative social influence).

Question 3

How does group size affect conformity

Answer 3

Asch (1956) changed group size. Groups with one confederate had a conformity rate of 3%. Groups with two confederates had a conformity rate of 13%. With three confederates conformity rose significantly to 32%. It appears that we can resist the influence of two people fairly easily, but three people are much harder to resist. There was little change to conformity once groups have reached four or more confederates.

Question 4

How does task difficulty affect conformity

Answer 4

Asch (1956) decided to adjust the task difficulty so he made the test lines more similar in length. Under these circumstances the level of conformity increased, possibly because informational social influence was starting to have an impact. This is because when we are uncertain, we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task became the greater the informational social influence and the conformity

Question 5

How does unanimity affect conformity

Answer 5

When the group had unanimity (everyone agreed) conformity increased. However, when only one other person in the group gave a different answer from the others, meaning that the group was not unanimous, conformity dropped. Asch (1956) found that even the presence of just one confederate who went against the majority reduced conformity from 33% to 5%. Even when the confederate gave a different wrong answer to the rest of the group conformity dropped from 33% to 9%.

Question 6

Evaluation of Asch (1951, 1956)

Answer 6

1. Asch (1951, 1956) may not have temporal validity (when a study reflects the current time period). The study was conducted 80 years ago and it is possible that people may have been more conformist then than they are now. Post-war attitudes that people should work together and consent rather than dissent may have affected the results.
2. The task given to the participants, to match line lengths, is artificial and unlikely to occur in real life. Conformity usually takes place in a social context, often with people we know rather than strangers. The study therefore lacks mundane realism (it does not reflect real life) and ecological validity (cannot be generalised to real life).
3. This study is gender biased because the sample only contained male participants. This means that the study may not represent female behaviour. It is also culturally biased because it only included white American men and may not reflect the behaviour of other cultures. However, this study has since been replicated (repeated) with different samples (the people who take part in astudy) and cultures, and has proven to be reliable (similar results have been found).
4. Asch (1951, 1956) used a volunteer sample (participants offered to take part in his experiment) whose behaviour may not represent that of a wider population. This means the study does not have population validity and the results cannot be generalised to the wider population.
5. There are several ethical issues with this study, including deception (participants believed they were taking part in a test of perception), lack of informed consent (participants did not agree to take part in a study about conformity) and psychological harm (participants were put in a stressful and embarrassing situation). However, it was necessary to deceive participants about the purpose of the study to prevent demand characteristics (when
   participants change their behaviour because they are in a study) which would make the study not valid (when a study does not measure what it intends to measure).