2: Conformity: variables affecting conformity

What is a ‘baseline study’?

• A study against which all later studies are completed

What was Asch’s baseline study?

• 1951

• Asch devised a procedure to assess variables that may lead to an increase/decrease in conformity

Describe ‘group size’ variable

• Varied number of confederates from 1-15

• Curvilinear relationship between group size & conformity rate

• Three confederates - conformity to incorrect answers rose to 31.8%

• Most people are sensitive to views of others as just one/two confederates was enough to sway opinion

Describe ‘unanimity’ variable

• Introduced a confederate who disagreed with other confederates

• In one variation, confederate gave incorrect answer & in another variation, confederate gave correct answer

• Genuine participant often conformed less in presence of dissenter, dissenter freed participant to act more independently

• Suggests the influence of majority depends to a large extent on it being unanimous

Describe ‘task difficulty’ variable

• Increased difficulty of task by making standard & comparison lines similar in length

• Situation became more ambiguous

• It’s natural to look to other participants & assume you are wrong in these circumstances, displaying informational social influence

Evaluate Asch’s study (Artificial situation & task)

• Participants aware of study & displayed demand characteristics

• Task of identifying lines was trivial, increasing the incentive to conform

• Findings do not generalise to real-world situations, especially where the consequences of conformity may be serious, resulting in a lack of ecological validity

Evaluate Asch’s study (Limited application)

• Asch’s participants were American men

• Other research suggests women may be more conformist because they are concerned about social relationships & being acceptance according to Neto 1995

• US is a fairly individualist culture & similar research studies conducted in more collectivist cultures have discovered higher conformity rates

Evaluate Asch’s study (Research support)

• Sehuri et al (2020) gave participants an online quiz & showed participants made-up results from other respondents & gave participants the chance to change answers

• 78% conformed to wrong answer, similar to Asch’s figure of 75% - implying Asch’s findings are still valid in modern society

Evaluate Asch’s study (Individual differences)

• Participants who scored highly of personality traits such as conscientiousness & neuroticism conformed more, conveying individual differences in conformity

Give 1 ethical benefit of Asch’s study

• Asch’s research helped increase our knowledge of why people conform, which may help people avoid mindless destructive conformity

Give 2 limitations of Asch’s study

1. Naïve participants were deceived because they thought other people involved in procedure were also genuine participants like themselves

2. Lack of informed consent as participants were not educated on true nature & aims of experiment