P1 Social Influence: Topic 2: Conformity to a Majority (Asch's Line Study, 1951) Flashcards
What was the procedure of Asch’s Line Study, 1951?
Asch tested conformity.
- Showed participants two large white cards at a time: One card was a ‘standard line’ and on the other card were three ‘comparison lines’.
- Participants asked which of the three lines matched the standard line.
- Participants were 123 American males undergraduate students.
- Each naive participant was tested individually within a group of 6-8 confederates.
- A trial is one occasion of identifying the length of the standard line.
- On first few trials all confederates gave right answers but then purposely started making errors (all instructed to give same wrong answer).
- Each participant took part in 18 trials and 12 ‘critical trials’ where confederates gave wrong answer.
What were the findings of Asch’s research?
- Naive participants agreed with confederates incorrect answers 36.8% of time.
- 25% never conformed by giving true answer (showing individual differences).
- 75% conformed at least once.
- To make sure test wasn’t too difficult, Asch conducted a control trial with no confederates. People made mistakes 1% of the time.
- When interviewed after, most participants said they conformed to avoid social rejection.
What three reasons were found why the participants conformed?
After interviewing them.
- Distortion of perception (saw line in the same way as the majority).
- Distortion of judgement (doubted own judgement).
- Distortion of action (compliance; they agreed publicly, but not privately, NSI).
How does Asch’s research link to Deutsch & Gerrard’s (1955) two-process theory?
- Answer was obvious, so participants would have known the answer (not ISI).
- This shows NSI, as participants said they went along with group for ‘fear of being ridiculed’. They knew answer but wanted to be liked.
What were the 3 variations in Asch’s research?
- Group size (from one confederate to having 15 confederates).
- Unanimity (one confederate who would disagree with others and give correct answer).
- Task Difficulty (made line-judging task more difficult by making comparison lines more similar in length).
What were the findings when Asch changed the:
Group size.
- Little conformity when 1 or 2 confederates.
- Under more pressure with 3 confederates, with 31.8% conformity.
- Further increases had no big impact on the levels of conformity, the size of majority is important but up to an optimal point.
What were the findings when Asch changed the:
Unanimity.
- Conformity dropped to 5%.
- Breaking the group’s consensus was one of the main influences in conformity.
What were the findings when Asch increased the:
Task Difficulty.
- Conformity to the majority increased (Asch didn’t report a %).
- Conformity depends on ISI when the situation is tricker as people look for guidance and assume others are right.
In Asch’s study his task was very artificial.
What is the problem with the task being artificial?
Why is this a limitation of Asch’s research?
- Participants may have known they were in a research study, so are just ‘going along’ with it.
- Task was insignificant/trivial, so no need not to conform.
- Findings don’t generalise real world situations.
Asch only studied USA men.
What are the issues with only studying this characteristic?
Why is this a limitation of his study and the findings?
- Women may be more conformist, as they are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted (Neto 1995).
- US is an individualistic culture (more concerned about themselves).
- Similar studies in china (collective culture) shows higher conformity.
- Asch’s findings tell little about conformity in women & other cultures.
What is an ethical issue present in Asch’s research?
- Participants were decieved as they believed that the other confederates were also participants.
- However, the findings of the research may outweigh the ethical issues.
One strength of Asch’s research is supporting evidence from other studies.
Who’s study and what did he do/find?
Lucas et al. (2006)
- Asked participants to solve easy & hard math problems.
- Participants conformed more when with harder problems.
- Asch correct in claming task difficulty is a variable affecting conformity.
Lucas found a limitation on Asch’s study though.
What does this tell us about conformity?
- Lucas found conformity is more complex than Asch suggested.
- Participants with high confidence in ability conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence.
- Shows individual level factors can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables. Asch didn’t research this.
