variables affecting conformity Flashcards
what was the aim of Asch’s study
measure the extent that people conformed to the opinion of others, even in a situation where the others’ answers were clearly incorrect.
what was Asch’s sample
123 male student volunteers
what is an issue with Asch’s sample
small sample
ethnocentric - all American
androcentric - all men
volunteers were deceived - they were told it was a visual perception test
what was the procedure for Asch’s study
1 naive pp in a group of 7-9
match the standard line with the 3 comparison lines - 2 comparison lines are incorrect
12/18 trials were critical - confederates would say the wrong answer
real pp answered last or next to last
unambiguous study
what were the findings
36% of pp conformed
5% conformed on all 12/18 critical trials
25% never conformed
75% conformed at least once
what were the post-interview findings in Asch’s study
distortion of judgement - not sure on accuracy so conformed to the majority
distortion of perception - didn’t know the answer so actually conformed
distortion of action - avoided ridicule/embarrassment
what did the results show in Asch’s study
the judgement of individuals was affected by the majority even when it was obviously wrong
factors affecting conformity
group size
unanimity
task difficulty
who did a meta-analysis to support Asch’s study on group size
Bond and Smith
why did the study show the conformity rate peaks in group size
ar 3 - 4 confedrates
what does unanimity do to social influence
conformity rates decline when the majority influence isn’t unanimous
how did Asch measure group size
varied the group size of confederates from 1 - 15
found that at 1 confederate conformity was 14% and increased to peak at 32% at 3 confederates
from 3 confederates onwards, conformity did not change - plateaued
how did Asch measure unanimity
brought in a dissenting confederate who would say the right answer or say the wrong answer
when the dissenting confederate said the right answer conformity dropped to 5.5%
when the dissenting confederate said the other wrong answer conformity dropped to 9%
how did Asch measure task difficulty
Asch made the line-judging task more difficult by making the stimulus line and the comparison line more similar in length.
He found that conformity increased under these conditions.
This suggests that informational social influence plays a greater role when the task becomes harder
what type of social influence is the dominant force in task difficulty + why
informational
This is because the situation is more ambiguous, so we are more likely to look to other people for guidance and to assume that they are right, and we are wrong
AO3 → a child of its time
Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch’s original study with engineering students in the Uk → only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials. it may by that the original sample was more conformist
but it is possible that during the 1950 (when Asch did this study) it was an especially conformist time in America, and therefore it made sense to conform to established social norm, but society has changed, and less people are conformist today
→ limitation because it means that the Asch effect is not consistent across situations and may not be consistent across time, and so is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour
artificial situation and task
pps knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with the demands of the situation (demand characteristics) → the task of identifiying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason not to conform, also although the naive pps were members of a group, it didn’t really resemble groups that we are part of in everyday life.
→ limitation because it means that the findings do not generalise to everyday situations - where the consequences of conformity might be more important and we interact with other people in groups in a much more direct way
limited application of findings
only men were tested by Asch, (ended up with a androcentric views/conclusions) other research suggests that women might be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted than men are (Neto 1995). the men in Asch study were from the United states, an individualist culture i.e. where people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social groups. this means that Asch’s conclusion are very ethnocentric
similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures (such as China) where the social group is more important than the individual have found that conformity rates are higher. this makes sense because such cultures are more orientated to group needs (Bond and Smith 1996)
→ this shows that conformity levels are sometimes higher than Asch found. Asch’s findings may not apply to American men because he didn’t take gender and cultural differences into account
ethical issues
the naive pps were deceived because they thought other people involved in the procedure (the confederates) were also genuine pps like themselves.
