variables that affect the levels of conformity

Question 1

group size

Answer 1

• Asch manipulated the size of the majority
• Using his original procedure, he varied the number of confederates in the group.

Participants were tested using either 1, 2, 3,
4, 8, 10, or 15 confederates.

Question 2

what are the findings on group size?

Answer 2

 Conformity was only 3% when there was 1 confederate
 Conformity was 13% when there were 2 confederates
 When there were 3 confederates, conformity increased to 33% and didn’t increase much beyond this regardless of the number of confederates

 a larger group of 15 confederates = slightly less conformity = the participant was more likely to become suspicious when there was such a large group

Question 3

unanimity

Answer 3

Asch wanted to see if one person dissenting from the majority would affect the likelihood of the participant
conforming

Question 4

what are the findings for unanimity?

Answer 4

-when the 1 conf gave the right answer before ppt answered conformity dropped to 5.5%

• when the confederate dissenter gave an incorrect answer to the majority = was equally effective in reducing conformity in the participant
• important factor = ppt had support from the group

Question 5

the difficulty of the task

Answer 5

Conformity increases when the task becomes more difficult

Question 6

what are the findings for the difficulty of the task?

Answer 6

• Asch found that when he made the length of the lines more similar, conformity increased.
• This supports the view that conformity is more likely when the task is difficult