Asch's research

What was Asch’s aim?

To see how a singular real participant would act to the behaviour of the confederates

What was Asch’s procedure?

• 123 male US undergraduates took part in the study.

• Only one person in each group was a real participant; the rest were actors (confederates).

• Everyone sat around a table and looked at a standard line.

• They were then shown three comparison lines of clearly different lengths and asked to choose which one matched the original line.

• Each person gave their answer out loud, with the real participant responding near the end.

• In 12 out of 18 trials, the actors intentionally gave the same wrong answer to see whether the real participant would conform and also choose the obvious wrong line.

What were Asch’s findings?

• In the 12 critical trials, participants gave the wrong (conforming) answer 36.8% of the time on average.

• There were clear individual differences:

  • 25% never conformed,

  • 50% conformed on 6 or more trials,

  • 5% conformed on all 12 critical trials.

• A control condition (with no confederates) showed participants made errors only 1% of the time, proving the task was easy and the correct answer was obvious.

• Post-study interviews revealed that most people who conformed knew the correct answer privately but changed their response to avoid social disapproval.

what year did Asch conduct his study in?

1951

what were the 3 variables Asch researched?

• unanimity of majority

• group size

• task difficulty

how did the experiment change for the group size variable and what effect did it have on conformity (Asch variable)?

• More confederates took part making a majority.

• When more confederates join, conformity increases.

• However, further increases of confederates above the number of 3 didn’t significantly affect conformity.

how did the experiment change for the unanimity of majority variable and what effect did it have on conformity (Asch variable)?

• Another non confederate was added or a confederate who was instructed to give the right answer.

• The percentage of wrong answers dropped from 33% to 5.5%.

how did the experiment change for the task difficulty variable and what effect did it have on conformity (Asch variable)?

• Asch made the differences between the lines much smaller and so the wrong answer less obvious.

• Levels of conformity increased, when a situation is ambiguous people are more likely to look to others to rely on for reassurance.

how good is the population validity in Asch’s study?

• Asch's study lacks population validity due to the sample he used which was only undergraduate males.

• This is not representative of the entirety of society as in society there is other genders, ages and races in the global population which therefore suggests it can't be generalised past male undergraduates.

how good is the temporal validity in Asch’s study?

• Asch's study lacks temporal validity as it was in the 1950's which makes it outdated as it was post-world war two which made conformity high.

• This suggests it is not representative of conformity today.

how good is the ecological validity in Asch’s study?

• The ecological validity of Asch's study is low as being in a classroom setting is a more intense setting then other places in day to day life.

• This suggests that conformity could be altered due to feeling pressure to get it correct in that setting, meaning it can't be generalised.

how is the mundane realism of Asch’s study?

• Asch's study has low mundane realism as it is an very unlikely we would ever have to compare obviously different lengths of lines in front of random people in day to day life.

• Therefore, this means it cannot be generalised to conformity in day to day life

define social influence

the process by which a person's attitudes, beliefs or behaviours are modified by the presence or action of others