Social Psychology: topic 2 ‘Asch’s research into conformity’

Question 1

What was Asch’s research into conformity?

Answer 1

• Asch aimed to test whether people would conform to group pressure through a line judgement task
• 123 american make undergraduates shown a standard line and 3 comparison lines
• had to judge which line was the same length as standard line
• 1 real ppt, 6 confederates
• confederates instructed to unanimously give the same incorrect answer 12/18 times
• ppt was always the last to answer
• found mean conformity rate if 37%
• 5% conformed on every trial
• 25% remained independent
• control group gave incorrect answers in 1% of trials

Question 2

What is unanimity?

Answer 2

• the extent to which all members of a group agree
• it is argued that the pressure to conform is at its highest when the majority group are unanimous (ie when they all agree)

Question 3

How was unanimity used in Asch’s study?

Answer 3

• he gave the real ppt a non-conformist ally (dissenter) who varied between giving correct and incorrect answers to the majority
• the presence of a dissenter meant the conformity rate dropped from 37% - 25%
• Asch concluded that when a groups unanimity is broken, this is a major variable in reducing conformity

Question 4

How was group size used in Asch’s study?

Answer 4

• Asch manipulated group size
• found that when there was a small group giving the wrong answer of 1 or 2 confederates, the conformity rates were low
• however under pressure from 3 confederates, conformity increased to 32%
• beyond 7 confederates, the conformity rate began to decrease slightly
• Asch concluded that the size of majority is important but only up to a point

Question 5

What is task difficulty?

Answer 5

• the difficulty of the task
• it is argued that if a situation is more difficult (more ambiguous), a person is more likely to conform because they are less confident in their own opinion and therefore more likely to look to others to provide guidance on how to behave

Question 6

How was task difficulty used in Asch’s study?

Answer 6

• Asch tested this by making the line judgement task more difficult (making the comparisons lines more similar to the standard line)
• he found that conformity rates increased