Variables Affecting Conformity

Question 1

When did Asch work on this key study?

Answer 1

1956

Question 2

What was the purpose of the study?

Answer 2

Asch asked student volunteers to take part in a visual discrimination task, although, unbeknown to these volunteers, all but one of the participants were really confederates (i.e. colleagues) of the investigator. He wanted to see how the lone ‘real’ participant would react to the behaviour of the confederates.

Question 3

What was the procedure?

Answer 3

• 123 male US undergraduates were tested
• participants were seated around a table and were asked to look at three lines of different lengths
• they all took in turns to call out which of the three lines they thought was the same length as a ‘standard’ line
• the real participant always answered second to last
• it was a fairly obvious solution to this task
• on the 12 of the 18 trials (i.e. ‘critical’ trials) the confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer
• Asch was interested in whether the ‘real’ participants would stick to what they believed to be right, or cave in to the pressured of the majority and go along with its decision

Question 4

What were the findings?

Answer 4

• 12 critical trials = the average conformity rate was 33% which on average one third agreed with incorrect responses that were given by the other group members
• Asch also discovered individual differences in conformity rates
• 1/4 of the participants never conformed on any critical trials
• half conformed on six or more of the critical trials
• one in 20 of the participants conformed on all 12 of the critical trials
  *without the distraction of other participants, Asch found that participants made mistakes about 1% of the time, although this could not explain the relatively high levels of conformity in the main study
• when interviewing them afterwards, he discovered that the majority of participants who conformed had continued to privately trust their own perceptions and judgements
• they changed their public behaviour, giving incorrect answers to avoid disapproval from other groups
• they showed compliance