Variables affecting conformity investigated by Asch Flashcards
What are the 4 variables Asch investigated in his study?
-Group Size
-Unanimity vs the partner experiment
-Task Difficulty
-Private Response Variation
What does group size involve with Asch’s study?
He ran several variations where he changed the numbers of confederates to see how much influence larger groups can have on an individuals frequency of conformity
What did Asch find out when altering confederates to 1, 2 and then 3 with group size in 1956?
found that when there was one ppt and one confederate conformity was low, this rose to 13% with 2 confederates and then 32% with 3.
what is the limitation found with group size?
found that after adding more than 3 ( up to a max of 15 ) confederates, there was on significant effect on conformity levels.
What did Bond and Smith (1996) do to reinforce Asch’s variable, group size?
conducted a meta analysis of 133 studies from 17 countries and found that conformity peaks with 4-5 confederates.
What are the three steps to the unanimity vs partner variation?
Asch replicated his study and included two conditions.
In 1st the confederates gave the wrong answer. (unanimous)
In 2nd, a partner spoke the correct answer before the ppt.
What did Asch find out from the unanimity vs partner condition?
Ppt conformity dropped from 32% in the unanimous condition to 5% in the partner condition
what are the two things the unanimity vs partner variation suggest?
- having a partner helps you to resist the majority
-when the majority isn’t unanimous it is easier to not conform.
What does task difficulty involve?
Investigated the effect of making the three lines more like each other in their length, making it harder for the ppt to determine which line matched the single one.
What did Asch find out from the task difficult variation?
Conformity levels increased in this study as ppts are more likely to conform when they were unaware of the correct answer.
What did Lucas (2006) study which is similar to changing the task difficulty in Asch’s study regarding self efficacy?
Instead of a line judgement the ppts had to complete a maths task. Ppts who were more confident in their maths ability showed greater levels of independence with the harder questions and didn’t conform as much.
What does the private response variation include?
Asch asked ppts to make a private response by writing their answer on paper instead of stating it aloud– the majority couldn’t know their answer.
What was the result from the private response variation and what does this suggest?
Conformity dropped by two thirds (37% down to 12%)
Suggests ppts in original study were conforming as they wanted to fit in with the majority.
Summarise how conformity is affected by each of the variables.
Group size - the more confederates the more conformity (until 3)
Social support - having a partner reduces conformity
Task Difficulty- the harder a task the more conformity
Private Responses- Decreases conformity.
