SOCIAL INFLUENCE: Asch (1951-55) Conformity Experiment

Question 1

When was the Asch experiment

Answer 1

1951, 1955

Question 2

How many participants were there

Answer 2

123 American male undergraduates (so not representative of all ages or genders)

Question 3

Procedure of the Asch experiment

Answer 3

Participants were tested individually w a group of 6 & 8 confederates. Each group contained only one real participant, the others were confederates (who acted like real participants but were really helping th experimenter) The naive participant was not aware of this. The real participant would always answer last, ensuring they heard the others give their deliberately incorrect answers.
- Participants were shown 2 cards at a time. One showing a ‘standard white line’ whilst the other showed 3 ‘comparison lines’. One line was correct, two were significantly disproportional.
- Altogether each participant took part in 18 trials. On 12 of these (critical trials), the confederates all gave the wrong answer. There was also a control group, where the participants judged the line lengths in isolation.

Question 4

Findings from the Asch experiment

Answer 4

In the control trials, participants gave the wrong answer 0.7% of the time. In the critical trials, the naive participant conformed to the majority 36.8% of the time. Overall, 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials, 75% conformed at least once
CONCLUSION: ‘Asch effect’ - conformity on an unambiguous task
- When interviewed, most participants said they conformed to avoid rejection (due to NSI)

Question 5

Other factors that influenced participants

Answer 5

Participants were influenced by situational factors. This happens due to the social situation a person is in.

Sometimes we are influenced by dispositional factors, due to a person’s internal characteristics

Question 6

What did Asch do to investigate the situational factors in the experiment

Answer 6

Asch repeated his study, this time varying the:
- Group size
- Unanimity/social support
- Task difficulty

Question 7

How does group size in the experiment have an effect (situational factor)

Answer 7

With 2 confederates, only 14% of participants conformed.
With 3 confederates, conformity rose to 32%.
Small majorities are easier to resist than larger ones but the influence does not keep increasing w the size of the majority. Increasing the group size only increased conformity to a certain point.

Question 8

How does unanimity/social support have an effect (situational factor)

Answer 8

Asch was curious to investigate whether or not the presence of another non-conforming person affect the naive participants conformity. So he introduced a confederate who disagreed w the other confederates.

• A dissenter (smne who goes against confederates) who gave the correct answer led conformity to the majority to drop to 5.5%
• A dissenter who gave a different incorrect answer led conformity to the majority to drop to 9%

This suggests that social support means the participant is more likely to stick w their instincts & initial beliefs/have confidence in their answer

Question 9

What was good about the Asch experiment

Answer 9

• This was a laboratory experiment, so there was good control of the variables. This minimises the effects of extraneous variables
• Strict control of the variables also means that you could easily repeat the study to see if you get the same results

Question 10

What was bad about the Asch experiment

Answer 10

• Bc the participants were not in a natural situation, the study lacks ecological validity. Whether they were right or wrong didn’t matter to the participants - they might have been likely to conform if their answers had real-life consequences.
• In terms of ethics, the participants were deceived & might have been embarrassed when they found out the true nature of the study
• Only tested Americans, so data cannot be used to represent all of society

Question 11

How does increasing task difficulty have an effect (situational factor)

Answer 11

To increase difficulty, the lengths of the lines were changed so that the stimulus line & comparison lines appeared more similar in length.

Conformity increased under these conditions bc ISI plays a greater role when a task becomes harder - the situation is more ambiguous

Question 12

Who repeated Asch’s original study

Answer 12

Perrin and Spencer in 1980

Question 13

What did Perrin & Spencer find upon repeating Asch’s study

Answer 13

Only 1/396 UK engineering students (therefore intelligent) conformed, possibly due to finding the task easier bc of their line of study/confidence in their skills

Shows that Asch’s study lacks temporal validity & ppl are less conformist today

Question 14

What is temporal validity

Answer 14

A type of external validity that refers to the ability to generalise results of a study across time.

Asch’s study has not stood the test of time after being repeated numerous times - evidence has shown we don’t conform in the same way as in 19th century

Question 15

What is the Hawthorne effect

Answer 15

Refers to the fact that ppl will modify their behaviour simply bc they are being observed. This affects the validity of the test

Question 16

Validity meaning

Answer 16

How well a test measures what it claims to

Question 17

Methodological issues with Asch’s experiment

Answer 17

• sample of US male undergraduates: cannot be generalised, not a naturalistic situation
• lacks ecological validity - not applicable to real world, cannot be used to predict behaviours in real world
• deception - participants didn’t know abt confederates
• lab/confederates - actors, artificial situation so lacks mundane realism
• psychological harm - Bogdonoff et al. (1961) provides supporting evidence that the participants were placed in a stressful situation. They tested the autonomic arousal of participants in an Asch-like task & found that they were physciologically aroused, high blood pressure, etc

Question 18

What were views on genders until 1970s based on the Asch study

Answer 18

In 1970s it was suggested that women would be more conformist, possibly bc they are more concerned w social relationships

Question 19

Who reanalysed the data from previous studies in 1981

Answer 19

Eagly and Carli (1981)

Question 20

What did Eagly and Carli find from their meta-analysis of previous studies

Answer 20

Conducted a meta-analysis of conformity research
- Sex differences were inconsistent
- Clearest difference between men & women - group pressure from an audience.
- Eagly (1987) argued that different social roles explains the differences in conformity
- Women are more concerned w group harmony
- Assertiveness & independence are valued male attributes

Question 21

How do cultural differences come into play with conformity

Answer 21

• Individualistic cultures (UK & US) is where personal goals take preference. More concern abt self, than others
• Social behaviour in collectivist cultures (China) is determined by goals w the collective rather than separate from it
• Found that conformity rates in ppl with collectivist views are higher (Bond and Smith, 1996).

Question 22

Is it fair to conclude conformity from Asch’s findings

Answer 22

• 2/3 of the trials, participants resolutely stuck to their og opinion despite being face w an overwhelming majority
• Asch believed the study demonstrated independence & not conformity

Question 23

3 reasons ppl conform

Answer 23

• Distortion of perception: came to see the lines in the same way as the majority
• Distortion of judgement: felt doubt abt the accuracy of their judgement so sided w majority
• Distortion of action: continued to trust their own judgement & perception but changed behaviour to avoid disapproval

Question 24

AO3 Evaluation: Research support for ISI (math questions)

Answer 24

Lucas et al. (2006) ‘self efficacy/personal judgement’
- Students were asked to give answers to mathematical problems, that were easy or more difficult.
- There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than when they were easier
- This was more likely the case for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor
- Results indicated that ppl conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer - low self efficacy

Question 25

Research against NSI: who is less likely to be affected by NSI

Answer 25

• Ppl who are less concerned w being liked are less likely to be affected by NSI
• nAffiliators = ppl who have a greater need for ‘affiliation’
• McGhee & Teevan (1967): students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform

Criticism of NSI: Individual differences in the way ppl respond

Question 26

ISI & NSI working together

Answer 26

• ‘two process approach’ suggests that behaviour is either due to NSI or ISI
• Asch (1951): conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting (smne who disagrees) participant
• The dissenter might reduce the power of NSI bc the dissenter provides social support
• Or may reduce the power of ISI bc there is an alternative source of info
• Casts doubt over the view of ISI & NSI as two processes operating independently in conforming behaviour

Question 27

Extra evaluation: support for NSI (why did participants go along with majority)

Answer 27

• Asch (1951) found that many of his participants went along w a clearly wrong answer just bc other ppl did. When asked why they did this, the participants said they felt self-conscious abt giving the correct answer & they were afraid of disapproval
• When Asch repeated the study but asked participants to write down their answers, instead of saying them out loud, conformity rates fell to 12.5%
• This is a strength bc it shows ppl were more prepared to give the wrong answer just to be liked, rather than to give the correct answer just to be right, as suggested by NSI