P1 Social Psychology - Asch : Variables Affecting Conformity Flashcards
What was the aim of Aschs study?
The purpose of this study was to see how the lone “real” participant would react to the behaviour of the confederates.
Who were the participants in Aschs study?
Asch asked student volunteers to take part in a visual discrimination task, although unbeknown to these volunteers, all but one of the participants were really confederates of the investigator.
What was the procedure of Aschs study?
123 male US undergraduates were tested. Participants were seated around a table and asked to look at three lines of different length and would take turns to call out which of the three lines they though was the same length as a standard line.
On 12 of the 18 trials the confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer. Asch was interested to see whether the real participants would stick to what they believed or cave to pressure and go along with everyone else.
What are the findings for the Aschs study?
On 12 of the trials, the average conformity rate was 33%, the participants agreed with the incorrect response given by other group members, on average 1/3 of the trials.
Asch interviewed the participants after and discovered that the majority of participants who conformed had continued privately to trust their own perceptions and judgements but changed their public behaviour to avoid disapproval from rest of group.
What are the variables affect conformity?
- Group size
- Difficulty of task
- Unanimity of majority
How does group size affect conformity?
Asch found that there was little conformity when the majority consisted of just one or two considerations. However under the pressure of a majority of three confederates the proportion of conforming responses jumped up to about 30%.
How does difficulty of task affect conformity levels?
In one variation, Asch made the differences between the line lengths much smaller(so that the correct answer was less obvious and the task much more difficult). Under these circumstances the level of conformity increased.
How does the unanimity of majority affect conformity?
In Aschs original study, the confederates unanimously gave the wrong answer. When the real participant was given the support of either another real participant or a confederate who had been instructed to give the right answers throughout, conformity levels dropped significantly, reducing the percentage of wrong answers from 33% to just 5.5%.
What are the issues of Aschs study?
- Temporal Validity ( the results may be unique to one culture and one era )
- Problems determining group size (the studies have only used a limited range of majority sizes)
What is a strength of Aschs study?
Not all participants in Aschs experiment conformed when the majority unanimously gave wrong answers (2/3 of these trials the participants stuck to their original judgement despite being faced with majority expressing a different view)
