Variables Affecting Conformity

What is the Asch effect?

the idea that individuals will usually conform to the majority

Asch’s first name?

Solomon

When did Asch investigate coformity?

1956

Asch 1956: Aim of experiment?

to see if a lone participant would conform to a group

Asch 1956: sample?

123 male US undergraduates

Asch 1956 - procedure: what were participants shown?

shown a standard vertical line, and 3 comparison lines of different lengths

Asch 1956 - procedure: what were participants then asked to say?

which of the comparison lines were the same as the standard line

Asch 1956 - procedure: what did the group tested each time consist of?

each time a group of participants, with only one real participant and the rest being confederates, were tested

Asch 1956 - procedure: in how many trials were the confederates instructed to give the wrong answer?

in 12 out of 18 trials

Asch 1956 - procedure: what did the Asch want to see?

if the participant agreed with the group

Asch 1956 - findings: what percentage of the time did the participant agree with the incorrect response given by the group?

33% of the time

Asch 1956 - findings: what fraction of participants never conformed to the group?

one quarter

Asch 1956 - findings: what proportion of participants conformed all 12 times?

1 in 20 participants

Asch 1956 - findings: what proportion of participants conformed on 6 or more trials?

half

Asch 1956: what was the control group?

participants answering without a group of confederates

Asch 1956: what percentage of the time did participants in the control group make mistakes?

only made mistakes 1% of the time

Asch 1956: when Asch interviewed his participants later, what did he find out was the reason for their conformity?

they changed their public behaviour, giving incorrect answers, to avoid disapproval from others - continued to privately trust their own perceptions

Asch 1956: therefore, what type of conformity were Asch’s participants showing?

compliance

Asch’s variations?

factors that could male the participants’ conformity rate increase or decrease

The 3 Asch’s variations?

size of the majority, unanimity of the majority and the difficulty of the task

Asch variations - size of majority: what effect did the majority being 1 or 2 people on conformity?

little effect

Asch variations - size of majority: what rate of conformity did the majority being 3 people cause?

31.8%

Asch variations - size of majority: what impact do amounts over 3 people acting as the majority have?

minimal impacts (suggesting 3 is the magic majority number)

Asch variations - unanimity of the majority: what happened to incorrect answers given by the participant when they were given a supporter?

incorrect answers dropped from 33% to just 5.5%

Asch variations: what effect did Asch find increasing the difficulty of the task had?

increased conformity

Asch variations: what type of conformity are participants showing when the difficulty of the task is increased?

internalisation

What investigation looked into conformity when increasing the difficulty of a task?

Lucas et al (2006)

What did Lucas et al (2006) find?

that, if the difficulty of the task was increased, self-efficacy came in to play

What is self-efficacy?

how confident an individual is in their ability

What does the participant having high self-efficacy lead to?

them being more independent - and not conforming

What does the participant having low self-efficacy lead to?

them being less independent - and conforming

What study investigated the gender differences in conformity?

Eagly and Carli (1981)

Eagly and Carli (1981): what gender did they find conformed more?

women

Positive - P: Where was Asch’s research carried out?

in a lab setting

Positive - Ex: therefore, what could Asch control and ensure?

it meant Asch could control the conditions and ensure it was a standardised procedure

Positive - Ev: an example of something Asch controlled in his experiment - where did the participants sit?

Asch controlled where the non-confederate participant sat - placing them second to last ever time

Positive - L: What benefit is there to Asch’s research being scientific?

his research is scientific and therefore reliable and easy to replicate

Negative - P: What may have participants guessed?

that the confederates were not real participants

Negative - Ex: what would have been difficult for confederates during the experiment?

to act consistently convincingly when giving the wrong answer - which could’ve led to participants realising they were confederates

Negative - Ev 1: What study supported this claim?

Mori and Arai (2010)

Negative - Ev 2: Mori and Arai (2010) - what did give each participant?

glasses with special polarising filters - three wore identical glasses and a fourth wore a pair with a different filter - causing them to see the stimuli differently

Negative - Ev 3: Mori and Arai (2010) - what was the rate of conformity found?

lower average rate of conformity

Negative - L: why does Mori and Arai (2010) reduce the validity of Asch’s research?

as participants could’ve been showing demand characteristics

Negative - P: what is low in the Asch experiment?

it has low generalisability

Generalisability?

extent that research findings from a study sample can be applied to the wider population, different settings, or other times, essentially linking to external validity

Negative - Ev 1: who repeated Asch’s study in the UK?

Perrin and Spencer (1980)

Negative - Ev 2: what was the rate of conformity found by Perrin and Spencer (1980)?

only one conforming response out of 396 trials

Negative - Ex 1: where and when was Asch’s study carried out?

in the 1950s in the US

Negative - Ex 2: Why was conformity more important in 1950s America?

because, in 1956, Americans were arguably more scared to go against the majority as the US was going through a strong anti-communist period

Negative - L: therefore, despite Asch’s experiment explaining conformity in the 1950s, what may it not be applicable to?

today’s society

Negative - P: what kind of bias may Asch’s research have?

cultural bias

Negative - Ev 1: who looked at a range of Asch-type studies from various cultures?

Smith et al. (2006)

Negative - Ev 2: what was the average rate of conformity found in Smith et al. (2006)?

31.2%

Negative - Ev 3: what did Smith et al. (2006) find large differences in conformity rates between?

different countries

Negative - Ev 4: conformity rate average in individualist cultures (Europe, US)?

around 25%

Negative - Ev 5: conformity rate average in collectivist cultures (Africa, Asia, South America)?

around 37%

Negative - Ex: what did Markus and Katayama (1991) suggest the reason for higher conformity in collectivist cultures was?

because it’s viewed more favourably - a form of ‘social glue’ that binds communities together

Negative - L: Therefore, what can’t Asch’s findings be applied to?

can’t be applied outside of western culture

Negative - P: what else could there be explaining the conformity?

extraneous variables

Negative - Ev: what research did Perrin and Spencer (1980) carry out that provided them with similar levels of conformity as in Asch’s experiment?

they used a variation of their research in which youths on probation were the participants, and probation officers were confederates

Negative - Ex 1: what does this research argue isn’t the sole explanation of the difference of conformity?

the fact Asch’s research was carried out a long time ago

Negative - Ex 2: What does this research suggest could be the reason for conforming?

the perceived costs of not conforming (i.e. the fear of being thought as a communist)

Negative - L: therefore, what does this show may not be the only reason for conformity?

that an overwhelming majority influence may not be the only reason for conformity

Negative - P: what size is the conformity Asch’s research actually shows?

a small amount of conformity

Negative - Ev 1: What fraction of the critical trials did participants conform to the majority group’s answers in?

only in one third of the critical trials - two thirds of the time participants didn’t conform

Negative - Ex: therefore what can it be argued that this study actually shows?

that we have a tendency to show independent behaviour when faced with an overwhelming majority believing differently - Asch himself thought this

Negative - L: therefore, what may it be inappropriate to conclude?

that Asch’s research sows we show conformity, as the majority of participants did not comply

Negative - P: what wasn’t explored/researched with conformity?

larger majority group sizes

Negative - Ev 1: What did Bond (2005) conclude about research on conformity?

that it only uses a limited range of majority sizes

Negative - Ev 2: what majority did Asch conclude was sufficient?

3

Negative - Ev 3 - what majority size did most research after Asch’s use?

majority of 3 - no studies used a majority larger than 9 (most between 2-4)

Negative - Ex: what does this mean we know very little about?

the effect of larger majority sizes on conformity

Negative - L: therefore, what can’t Asch’s research be applied to?

larger groups - such as crowds