Social Influence, –Asch Flashcards
What was the aim of Asch’s classic line study?
To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group would affect a person to conform.
What was the procedure of Asch’s classic line study?
123 male undergraduate students from the USA. Lab experiment. The Participants were given a false aim that they were taking part in a vision test. There was only one real participant in groups of 6 to 8 confederates the people were shown two cards with the standard line and with comparison lines they had to state which line was the matching one and they always answered 2nd to last.
What was the findings of Asch’s classic line study?
- The naive participants gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time this is known as the conformity rate.
- 25% of participants did not conform at all which means 75% conform at least once.
- Post experiments interviews the participants said they knew the answer but did it to avoid social rejection.
What was the conclusion of Asch’s classic line study?
People conform in order to fit in and not be rejected by the group.
What were the variations of Asch’s experiment?
– unanimity
– Group size
– Task difficulty
Explain group size as a variation of Asch’s study.
– with three confederates conformity rose to 31.8% but after that there was a little difference.
– So a small minority is not sufficient but there is no need for a majority of more than three.
Explain unanimity as a variation of Asch’s study.
– The introduction of a confederate who disagreed with the others.
– This was the test whether the presence of a non-conforming person could influence the real participant.
– The presence of the descent reduced conformity to 5.5%.
Explain the variation of task difficulty in Asch’s study.
– The task was made more difficult by making the standard line and the comparison lines more similar in length.
– Conformity increased under these conditions.
– Suggesting informational social influence plays a greater grown in more ambiguous situations so we are likely to look to other people for guidance.
Give an evaluative limitation point of Asch’s study
Perrin and Spencer replicated ashes study using science and engineering students in the UK only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials - therefore this temporal validity because America 50 years ago was perhaps less individualistic.
What did Neto suggest was a limitation of Asch’s study?
Neto (1995) argues there are differences in average levels of conformity between men and women females are more concerned with social relationships and are more conformist.
