Variables affecting conformity Flashcards
What is the Asch effect
the very human tendency for us to sometimes do
as others do rather than what we feel is right.
Variations of Aschs original expirement
situtional variables:
Group size
Unanimity (degree to which group members agree with each other)
Task difficulty
Aim of Aschs study
investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers.
Procedure of Aschs study
123 American male student volunteers
individual participants were placed in groups 6-8 confederates
They were seated around a table and were asked to say which comparison line (A, B or C) was the
same length as the stimulus line (X) on 18 different trials. The answer was always obvious.
They took turns to call out their answers with the real participant always answering second to last or
last.
Twelve of the 18 trials were ‘critical’ trials where the confederates gave identical wrong answers. For
the first six trials, the confederates gave the right answers. A trial = one occasion identifying the
length of the stimulus line.
There was also a control group of 36 participants who were tested individually on 20 trials to test
how accurate individual judgements were.
Aschs Findings
The control group had an error rate of only 0.04% (3 mistakes out of 720 trials), which showed how
obvious the correct answers were.
On the 12 critical trials, there was a 33% conformity rate to wrong answers (so, participants agreed
with incorrect responses, on average, on 1/3 trials).
75% conformed to at least one wrong answer (meaning only 25% never conformed)
5% conformed to all 12 wrong answers
Aschs Conclusion
The judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions, even when the majority are
obviously wrong (the task is unambiguous).
Group size
Asch found that there was very little conformity when the majority consisted of just
one confederate, rising to 13% with two confederates. However, under the pressure of a majority
of three confederates, the proportion of conforming responses jumped to 31.8%. Further increases
in the size of the majority (up to 15) did not increase the level of conformity substantially, indicating
that a small majority is not sufficient for influence to be exerted, but that the size of the majority is
only important up to a point.
unianimty of the majority
he introduced a confederate who disagreed with the
others – sometimes the new confederate gave the correct answer and sometimes he gave the
wrong one.
Asch found that that the presence of the dissenting confederate giving the correct answer meant
that conformity was reduced to 5%, and 9% when the dissenting confederate gave a different
wrong answer. The dissenter enabled the participant to act more independently. This suggests
that the influence of the majority depends to some extent on the group being unanimous.
the difficulty of the task
Asch made the difference between the line lengths much smaller so that the
correct answer was less obvious and the task much more difficult. Under these circumstances, the
level of conformity increased. This suggests that when the task gets harder, informational social
influence plays a greater role. This is because the task is more ambiguous and so we are more
likely to look to other people for guidance and to assume that they are right and we are wrong.
