Social influence key studies Flashcards
Vairables affecting conformity: Asch (?)
1956
Aim of Asch
examine the extent to which social pressure from a majoirty can affect conformity
Procedure - Asch (1956)
123 male undergrads, seated around a table and asked to look at a standard line and three comparison lines of different lengths, took turns calling out answer
real ppts always answered second to last
12 of 18 trials confederates instructed to give the same wrong answer
Findings - Asch (1956)
on the 12 critical trials conformity rate 33% compared to a control group without wrong answers (1%)
interviewed later and found the remained to trust their own perceptions privatley but changed their public behaviour (compliance)
Conclusions - Asch (1956)
interviews after confrimed that people commit because of normative social influence/desire to fit in
Group size
- little conformity when only 1/2 confederates
- pressure of 3 confederates conformity jumped to 30%
- further increases in size of confederates did not increase conformity
Unanimity of the majority
- Asch original study all gave wrong answer
- when real ppts given support drop from 33% to 5.5%
- confed who gave an answer that was wrong but also alone dropped conformity rates to 9%
- conclude that breaking groups unanimity was a major factor in conformity reduction
Difficulty of the task
- made line lengths much smaller so correct anser less obvious
- confomity increased
- Lucas et al investigated the link between task difficulty and self-efficacy
- high self-efficacy ppts remained more independent than low, showing situational and individual differences both important
The stanford prison experiment - Zimbardo (?)
1973
Aim of SPE
to examine whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner, when placed in a mock prison environment.
Procedure - SPE
mock prison set up in basement of stanford university, male student voulnteers and 24 most physically and psychologically stable selected
