Research Into Conformity Flashcards
What was the aim of Asch’s (1951) study on conformity?
To examine whether participants would yield to majority social influence and give incorrect answers in a situation where the correct answers were always obvious.
Describe the procedure used in Asch’s conformity study.
Participants stated aloud which of three lines matched the length of a standard line. Only one naïve participant was in each group, with confederates instructed to give unanimous wrong answers on 12 of the 18 trials.
How many American male college students participated in Asch’s first study?
50 American male college students.
What percentage of participants conformed on at least one critical trial?
75% of the participants conformed on at least one critical trial.
What was the average conformity rate found in Asch’s study?
The average conformity rate was 32%.
What percentage of participants never conformed in Asch’s study?
25% of the participants never conformed.
What was the error rate in the control group of Asch’s study?
The error rate in the control group was only 0.04%.
What conclusion did Asch draw from his study on conformity?
There is strong group pressure to conform, especially when the group is a unanimous majority.
What reason did some participants give for conforming in Asch’s study?
Some participants said they could not bear to be in the minority due to fear of ridicule and rejection.
What is the term for the type of social influence where individuals conform due to a belief that their judgment is inaccurate?
Informational social influence (ISI).
What type of social influence involves conforming to avoid social rejection?
Normative social influence (NSI).
Fill in the blank: In Asch’s study, the participants who called out their answers second to last were referred to as _______.
naïve participants.
True or False: 5% of participants conformed on all 12 of the critical trials in Asch’s study.
True.
Limitation-ethical issues in Aschs research
Aschs research has been criticised for deceiving participants
Naive participants were unaware that other people in the group were confederates of the researcher.They were misled about the aims of the research-told it was perception of line, rather being told that it was about conformity
Anytime deception is present, there is also no full informed consent
Practical applications-strength
Provided useful knowledge for society
Helps to understand how certain situational factors can influence people in society to conform and can be useful for policy makers by trying to influence public behaviour and promote social change within society
E.g encouraging people to conform to wearing face masks during the Covid pandemics
Methodological points-strength
Aschs experimental method for testing conformity was its ability to be replicated and to fully manipulate the conditions
By changing aspects of the IV within his later situational variation studies Asch was able to gather important information about the various situational factors
Such as group size and task difficulty which makes conformity more (or less) likely
Methodological point-limitation
Low levels of ecological validity
Line judgment task is highly artificial which does not reflect conformity in everyday life
real life might include things such as when young people start smoking or joking that we don’t really find funny
Unable to generalise the results of Asch or the conclusions about conformity to other real life situations
Limited in application to everyday conformity
