variables affecting conformity - ASCH

what did Soloman Asch study

the effects of peer pressure through a series of labrotaroy experiments

what was the procedure of Asch’s line test

1) each participant was placed in a room with 7 confederates \n 2) participants were shown with a line on it, followed by a card with 3 lines on it \n 3) participants were then asked to say aloud which line matched the line on the first card in length \n 4) the confederates sat in a manner so that the real participant was always the last to respond

how many trials were there in total and in how many of them did the confederates answer incorrectly?

18 total trials and 12 of them were answered incorrectly by the confederates making them critical trials

in total how many participants were there

57 real participants and 37 participants in the control conditon

in the control condition how many ppts gave an incorrect answer

less than 1%

how many answers of the critical trials were incorrect

1/3 or 33%

In the experimental group how many of participants gave an incorrect response to atleast one question

3/4 or 75%

group size

Asch (1956) found very little conformity with a majority of one or two, but above this, conformity rates rose to 30%

when is group size most significant?

in the absence of an objectively correct answer and when the individual is concerned about fitting in

when is group size less significant?

when there is a correct response and the individual is concerned about being correct

unanimity of the majority

when a confederate gave correct answers, conformity rates dropped to 5.5%

did the unanimous confederate have to answer with the correct answer?

no, even when a confederate put a different wrong answer, conformity rates dropped to 9%

this suggests that breaking the unanimity was the key factor in reducing conformity rates

difficulty of the task

when task difficulty was increased (smaller differences between line lengths), conformity levels also increased.

how does self-efficiency effect task difficulty?

the relationship between task difficulty and conformity is moderated by self-efficacy (confidence in one's own ability).

what happens in situations of high self-efficiency?

in situations where individuals have high self-efficacy, they are more likely to remain independent, regardless of the difficulty of the task

Asch procedure?

individual participants were seated round a table with confederates and asked to judge lines of different length and match one of these to a standard line

what did the confederates do in 12/18 trials?

on 12 of 18 trials, confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer. Asch was interested in whether eg) participants went along with (conformed with) the major

Asch findings?

on these critical trials, the average conformity was 33%

one quarter of participants never conform and one in 20 conformed on all 12 critical trials.

why did the majority of conforming ppts conform?

the maiority of those who conformed admimed to only changing their public behaviour to avoid disapproval from other group members

ao3 - lack of research support?

* Perrin and Spencer - repeated Asch's study with engineering students in the UK.


* only one student conformed out of 396 trials.

ao3 - lacks external validity?

* artificial task - participants knew they were in a study so demand characteristics could have played a part.
* lab experiment lacks external validity and can't be generalisable and applicable to real-life situations.

ao3 - IDA?

* only men were tested - androcentric.
* the men used were from the America (an individualistic country), can't be generalised to more collectivist countries such as China - where conformity rates are higher.