SB 2 - The Asch Line Study

Question 1

The Asch Line Experiments (1951)

Answer 1

Experimenters led by Solomon Asch asked students to participate in a “vision test.” In reality, all but one of the participants were confederates, and the study was really about how the remaining student would react to the confederates’ behaviour. 123 male American students were tested.

Question 2

Method

Answer 2

Each group consisted of one naive participant and seven confederates.
Participants identified the line on their diagram that matched a given line.
When the task was completed Asch asked the group to identify the correct answer one by one. The naive participant was always seated near the end and last or second last to give his answer.
Asch was interested in how the naive participant would answer in these circumstances

Question 3

Results

Answer 3

A high proportion (37%) of participants conformed to the majority view when there were at least three confederates present
When the confederates were not unanimous in their judgment, subjects were much more likely to give the correct answer than when the confederates all agreed.
Varying the size of the majority demonstrated that a minimal majority of 3 was required for the effect, and larger majorities did not increase the effect.
As task difficulty increases (and the correct answer becomes less obvious), conformity also increases.

Question 4

Evaluation

Answer 4

The use of all male American students in this study is not representative of the wider population. Due to this, the study lacks external validity.
he study was conducted in a lab setting and so lacks ecological validity. This may have resulted in very different behaviour compared to what they may have done in the real world as the study lacked mundane realism.