Key Experiment - Asch (1955 and 1956)

What was the aim of Asch’s 1955 experiment?

To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers

Who were the participants in Asch’s experiment?

123 American male students

What was the procedure of Asch’s experiment?

• Groups of eight male students were used, with seven acting as confederates and one real participant.

• They completed an easy line‑matching task, answering aloud in order, with the real participant always last.

• Across 18 trials, confederates intentionally gave unanimous wrong answers on 12 critical trials to see whether the participant would conform.

• Afterward, participants were interviewed and debriefed.

What were the findings of Asch’s experiment?

• Only 0.04% got the answer wrong on the control group

• 36.8% conformity rate on trials

• 75% of participants conformed at least once

• 5% of participants conformed to all 12 wrong answers

What is distortion of action?

The individual recognises that the group’s answer is incorrect but aligns their behaviour with the group to avoid social disapproval or standing out.

What was the main reason for conformity in Asch’s experiment?

distortion of action

What was the conclusion of Asch’s experiment

Asch concluded that people conform to a majority even when the answer is obviously wrong, demonstrating the powerful influence of normative social pressure.

What did Asch’s 1956 experiment investigate?

how situational variables affect conformity

What were Asch’s three situational variables?

• the size of the majority

• unanimity

• the difficulty of the task

What was the conformity rate in Asch’s 1956 experiment with one other person?

3%

What was the conformity rate in Asch’s 1956 experiment with two other people?

13%

What was the conformity rate in Asch’s 1956 experiment with three other people?

32%

What was the conformity rate in Asch’s 1956 experiment with fifteen other people?

31%

Does conformity increase with group size according to Asch’s 1956 experiment?

Yes up to a point. When you reach 3 or 4 confederates the conformity rates plateau out at around 35%.

When one confederate dissented from the rest, giving the correct answer, conformity rates dropped from over 30% to?

5.5%

When one confederate dissented from the rest, giving a different incorrect answer, conformity rates dropped from over 30% to?

9%

Why does conformity decrease when the unanimity of the majority is broken according to Asch’s 1956 experiment?

the presence of a dissenter in the majority enables an individual to behave independently. As long as the unanimity of the majority is broken then conformity rates will drastically decrease whether or not the dissenter is correct.

How did Asch in his 1956 experiment make the task more difficult?

he made the lines more similar in length and thus harder to distinguish

How did increased task difficulty affect conformity rates in Asch’s 1956 experiment?

conformity increased under more difficult tasks

Why did increased task difficulty affect conformity rates in Asch’s 1956 experiment?

the situation is more ambiguous and thus it is natural to look to others for guidance and assume they are right (Informational Social Influence)