Variables Affecting Conformity Flashcards
What was the procedure for asch
Ash took a sample of 50 American undergraduates and placed one naive participant in a group of several confederates. The group were about 6-8. The group was then asked to look at a ‘standard line’ and then decide individually which of the three other ‘test lines’ matched the ‘standard line’ without discussion. They gave their responses one at a time and the answer was obvious, however all confederates purposely gave the wrong answer on 12 of the 18 trials. The naive Participant was placed last or second last when telling their answers so they heard the rest of the group before saying theirs
What were the findings of asch
The chance of getting the answer wrong was less than 1%, but 33% of responses given by real participants were incorrect. 75% of participants confirmed on at least 1 trial. 5% conformed on every trial, but 25% didn’t conform on any trial. When interviewing after, they trusted their own judgement, but gave the same answer as the group to avoid disapproval.
How does group size affect conformity?
Asch changed group size to see how that would affect conformity. With:
1 confederate = conformity was 3%
2 confederates = rose to 13 %
3 confederates = rises agin to 32%
Little change after 4 or more
We can resist 1 or 2, but 3 is much harder to resist
How does task difficulty affect conformity
Asch decided to adjust task difficulty and made the lines more similar in length. Because of this, conformity increased. This could be due to ISI having an impact. This is because when we are uncertain, we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task, the greater the ISI and conformity
How did unanimity affect conformity
When the group had unanimity (everyone agreed), conformity increased. However, when the other person in the group gave a different answer from the rest, breaking the unanimity, conformity decreased. Asch found that even if just 1 confederate went against the majorly, conformity reduced from 33% to 5%. Even if the confederate gave a different wrong answer, it dropped from 33% to 9%
Evaluation Asch
Does not have temporal validity. Study was conducted 80 years ago and it was possible people were more conformist then because post war attitudes were that people should work together, affecting the results
Also lacks mundane realism and ecological validity - the task to match lines is very artificial and unlikely to happen in real life and conformity also takes place in a context with friends, not strangers.
It’s also gender biased - only contained males. Does not represent female behaviour. It’s also culturally biased as it only includes white American men and may not reflect the behaviour,of other cultures, however this study has been replicated with different samples and cultures and have proven to be reliable.
A volunteer sample was also used. Their behaviour may not represent a wider population. No population validity and results can’t be generalised to wider population.
Hella ethical issues - such as deception, no informed consent and psychological harm. However it was necessary to deceive participants about the purpose of the study to prevent demand characteristics as it would make the study invalid
