Variables Affecting Conformity Flashcards
What are the 3 variables
Task difficulty
Group size
Unanimity
What happens to conformity rates as the size of the majority group increases
Increases
The size of the group stops having an effect once the group reaches…
A certain size
1 real participant, conformity was at
3%
2 confederates, 1 real participant, conformity was at
13%
3 confederates, 1 real participant, conformity was at
32%
When did conformity plateau after
3 confederates to 1 ppt
What does group size suggest about conformity?
The size of the majority does affect conformity but only to a point
When was conformity at 3%
1 ppt to 1 confederate
When was conformity at 13%
1 ppt to 2 confederates
When was conformity at 32%
1 ppt to 2 confederates
What does unanimity mean?
Complete agreement from a group about an answer or viewpoint
In the original Asch study, all confederates gave the same wrong answer and conformity was at
37%
When a confederate gave the correct answer, conformity dropped to
5.5%
When did conformity drop to 5.5%
When a confederate gave a wrong answer throughout
When a lone confederate gave an answer both different to the ppts and the rest of the confederates, conformity dropped to
9.9%
When was conformity at 9.9%
When a lone confederate gave an answer different to the confederates and the ppt
Asch concluded when a dissenter breaks the groups unanimous position, conformity
Decreases
Conformity ………… when task difficulty increases
Increases
Asch made the stimulus and comparison lines more similar in length so that the correct answer was less obvious, making the task
Harder
Asch made the stimulus and comparison lines more similar in length so that the correct answer was less obvious, making the task harder, this did what to conformity rates?
Increases
Task difficulty suggests that what explanation of conformity plays a greater role as the taks gets harder and why?
ISI - when situations are unclear, we are more likely to look to others for guidance
As the right answer becomes less obvious, what happens to us?
We lose confidence in our own ability and are more likely to conform
RTS
Lucas et al
What did Lucas et al do?
Ask student to solve easy and hard maths question.
What were the students given in Lucas et al’s study?
Three other answers form other ‘students’.
What did Lucas et al find?
Students conformed more often when problems were difficult than easy
How does Lucas et al support Asch?
Suggests that when the task is harder, conformity increases
What has Lucas et al said about Asch view of conformity? Why?
That it may be more complex than Asch suggests.
Participants with high confidence in maths abilities conformed less on hard problems than those with low confidence
What did Lucas et al find to affect conformity?
Individual level factors that interact with situational variables
Why Asch’s research limited accounting to Lucas et al? (L)
He didn’t research the role of individual level factors
What 2 types of bias does Asch have
Gender
Culture
Why is Asch gender bias?
All male sample
Cant generalise to women who care more about social relationships so more likely to confirms.
Weakens external validity
Why is Asch culture bias?
Only conducted in America (western, individualistic)
Cant generalise to non wester, collectivist e,g china who care about good of group so more likely to conform and agree it’s group to be liked regardless of variables. Suggested by Bond and smith
Weakens external validity
