Research Into Conformity Flashcards
Who studied conformity?
Asch
What was Asch’s aim of his research?
To measure the strength of the conformity affect using an unambiguous task
What was Asch’s method of his experiment?
He used 123 American males (undergraduate students) and each took turns to join a group of confederates. The real naïve participant did not know the rest of the people taking part were confederates. They were asked to match vertical lines on a card. On the first two trials the confederates answered correctly but on the third they gave the wrong answer. The dependent variable was who would conform to the confederates and give the wrong answer having heard their answers first.
What were the results of Asch’s study?
The naïve participant conformed to the wrong answer 36.8% of the time over 12 trials.
25% never conformed.
75% of participants conformed atleast once.
5% conformed on every trial.
What was Asch’s conclusion?
Some individuals judgments / decisions are influenced by majority opinion
What were the three reasons Asch gave as to why people conformed?
Distortion of perception
Distortion of judgement
Distortion of Action
Why do people conform because of distortion of perception?
They came to see the lines in the same way as the majority
Why did Asch’s participants conform because of distortion of judgement?
They doubted their own judgment
Why did Asch’s participants conform because of distortion of action?
They agreed in public but not privately
What were the situational variables that affected conformity in Asch’s study?
Group Size
Social Support
Task Difficulty
How did group size affect conformity in Asch’s study?
Asch found that a majority of three people was enough to create conformity. So the rate of conformity increased as the size of the group increased, but only to a certain point as after that there was no difference in conformity levels.
How did social support affect conformity in Asch’s study?
When a supporter of the naïve participant was present who said the right answer throughout the trials conformity when from 30% to 5%
How did task difficulty affect conformity in Asch’s study?
Asch made the difference between the lines less obvious in one variation and found that as task difficulty increases, so did conformity
How could the time that Asch’s study was conducted affect his results?
It could be that people were influenced more by majority influence at the time of the study than people are now. In 1956 when Asch’s study was conducted America was in the grips of McCarthyism, a strong anti-communist period when people were scared to go against the majority and were more likely to conform. Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch’s study in the U.K. In 1980 and found that conformity was a lot lower. This demonstrates that people are more independent now and confident in being different. Therefore original research into conformity such as Asch’s lacks temporal validity and thus the conclusions cannot be applied to the people of today.
What cultural differences did Smith et al find regarding conformity?
Smith et al analysed results of Asch type studies across a number of different cultures and found an average conformity rate of 25% in individualist cultures (USA, UK) and 37% in collectivist cultures (Japan, Africa). The higher rate of conformity in these collectivist cultures could be explained by the fact that they see conformity as a ‘social glue’ that binds their community together. Therefore, research into conformity is reductionist as it does not take into account cultural differences and individual beliefs.
