Variables Affecting Conformity Flashcards
outline a study into conformity
6
Asch (1951)
- 123 male undergraduates as participants
- participants had to estimate which of the three comparison lines was the same length as the target line
- split into groups of 7-9 but only 1 participant in each group was real, the rest were confederates being instructed on how to behave
- the real participant always answered last or second to last — ensuring they were exposed to the majority viewpoint before answering
- 18 trials; 6 neutral trials (confederates answered correctly) + 12 critical trials (confederates deliberately gave the wrong answer)
- confirmed the task was unambiguous by conducting a control condition with no fake participants — he found that participants only made mistakes on about 1% of trials, other than that they gave the correct answer
outline the findings from this study
5
conformity rate = 33% — meaning that the real participants agreed with the incorrect answer given by the confederates in approximately 1/3 of trials
1/4 did not conform in any critical trials
50% conformed in 6 or more trials
1 in 20 conformed in all of the critical trials
in interviews after, the majority of participants that conformed admitted to continuing to privately trust their own judgments but changed their behaviour publicly to avoid disapproval from the rest of the group (demonstrating compliance and NSI)
variables affecting conformity
4
Asch carried out a number of variations of his original study to identify which variables had the most significant effects of levels of conformity
he tested….
• group size — by increasing the majority of confederates
- task difficulty — by making the lines more similar in length, the task is more difficult as the correct answer is less obvious
- unanimity of the majority — by breaking the unanimity by instructing one or more of the confederates to stand up to the majority and give the correct answer
how did group size affect conformity?
6
Asch found very little conformity when the majority consisted of just one or two confederates
however, when the majority was increased to 3 the proportion of conforming responses increased to about 30%
further increases in the size of the majority did not significantly increase the level of conformity
conformity begins to level out at a group size of 4
and then begins to decrease at 7
indicates group size is only important up to a certain point and conformity may actually begin to decrease in a large group
how did task difficulty affect conformity?
2
conformity increased as the task difficulty increased
the correct answer was much less clear so the participants were more likely to doubt themselves and so looked to the others for the answer in order to be right
how did unanimity of the majority affect conformity?
6
originally all the confederates unanimously gave the same wrong answer
when this unanimity was broken, by having confederates go against the majority, conformity dropped from 33% to 5.5%
when the confederate gave a different answer to the group and the real participant, conformity still fell to 9%
Asch concluded that breaking unanimity of the majority was the major factor in conformity reduction
this shows that power of the majority lies in its unanimity
if more people oppose the majority then conformity reduces because the participant no longer has to stand alone against the group
how does each variable effect conformity?
3
task difficulty increases conformity
group size increases conformity up to a certain point but then it declines
breaking unanimity decreases conformity
x3 evaluation points for Asch’s original study
lacks historical validity
cultural differences
laboratory study
EVALUATION
lacks historical validity
6
his study was conducted in the 1950s, so the results he found and the high levels of conformity displayed in the study may simply reflect the time of the study and may not apply to the present day
conformity was high during the 1950s because people were coming together after the war and community and unity was very important
the US was also gripped by McCarthyism, a strong anti-communist period where people were scared to go against the majority out of fear of being accused of subversion, so were more likely to conform
a study by Perrin and Spencer (1980) challenges Asch’s results as it found that only 1 out of 396 trials displayed conformity
these results may also be reflective of the time the study was conducted — the 1980s was a period of great individuality which could explain why participants did not conform, they didn’t feel as much pressure to fit in
therefore, Asch’s study seems to lack historical validity and may be limited in its ability to explain conformity in the present day, as Perrin and Spencer’s study demonstrates that susceptibility to conformity changes over time and is dependent on the period
EVALUATION
cultural differences
5
Asch’s study may lack population validity
all of the samples were from western cultures, which is a problem because research such as Smith et al (2006) has found that there are cultural differences in terms of how different groups of people conform
Smith et al found that individualist cultures tend to conform less — the average conformity rate being just 25% compared to 37% for collectivist cultures
possibly because individualist cultures emphasise independence whereas collectivist cultures emphasise the importance of the group
therefore, Asch’s study may have limited usefulness in explaining conformity across all cultures because his sample was unrepresentative meaning that the findings will be difficult to generalise to other people beyond the study
EVALUATION
laboratory study
6
may lack ecological validity
this artificial environment may not have produced valid results because the behaviour of the participants in a controlled setting may not be representative of how they’d behave and display conformity in real life
difficult to generalise findings to a real life setting
therefore, his study should be viewed with caution when explaining conformity
however, laboratory studies have high internal validity
this is because it is easier to control variables which reduces the chance of extraneous and confounding variables interfering with the results
