Social Influence - 01 (2-Asch's study) Flashcards
What kind of experiment was Asch’s study?
Lab experiment
Describe the sample used in Asch’s study?
-50 male students from Swarthmore college in the USA
What was the false aim given to the p’s in Asch’s study?
That they were participating in a vision test
What task did Asch use to investigate conformity?
a line judgement task
Describe the procedure of Asch’s study?
-Naïve participant put in a room with 7 confederates
-Each person had to state aloud which comparison line was most like the target line and the answer was always obvious
-the real p’s were always sat at the end of the row and gave their answer last or second to last
-there were 18 trials in total and the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 of the critical trials
-there was also a control condition with no confederates and only “real p’s”
What were the results of Asch’s study?
-Real p’s conformed to the incorrect answers on 32% of the critical trials
-Over the 12 critical trials, about 75% of the p’s conformed at least once
-25% of the p’s never conformed
-In the control group less than 1% of the p’s gave the wrong answer
What did the p’s say in Asch’s interviews after the study?
-Most said that they knew they were incorrect, but they went along with the group in order to fit in or because they thought they would be ridiculed
-Some conformed as they questioned their judgement and thought that the others were right
How did Asch’s research display NSI
Most p’s conformed and gave the wrong answer because wanted to fit in to the group and they didn’t want to be ridiculed for giving the wrong answer
How did Asch’s research display ISI
Some p’s thought the other people were correct and so conformed as they questioned their judgement and wanted to get the answers right
What were the 3 variations of Asch’s study?
1- Group size
2- Task difficulty
3- unanimity
What happened when Asch changed group size in his experiment?
-One confederate = p’s conformed 1% of critical trials
-Two confederates = p’s conformed 12.8% of critical trials
-Three confederates = p’s conformed 32% of critical trials (HIGHEST LEVEL)
-Further increases did not increase the levels of conformity so size of majority is important but only up to an optimal point
What happened when Asch changed task difficulty in his experiment?
-Asch made the line lengths closer together and therefore the task harder
-found that conformity to majority increased
-suggests that ISI plays greater role when task is harder/more ambiguous
What happened when Asch changed unanimity in his experiment?
-Asch instructed one confederate to give the right answer
-conformity dropped to 5.5% when one confederate disagreed with the majority
-If one confederate gave a different incorrect answer from the other confederates, then conformity dropped to 9%
-suggests if you break a group’s unanimous position, then conformity is reduced
Evaluation of Asch’s study (demand characteristics)
Evaluation of Asch’s study (population validity)
