Asch’s conformity study

Explain the procedure of the baseline variation of Asch’s conformity experiment (3)

• 123 American men in groups with 5-7 confederates

• Task: identify which comparison line is same length as stimulus line

• Confederates gave wrong answer on 12/18 trials

What was the overall conformity rate and what percentage of participants conformed at least once

• overall conformity rate = 37%

• Conformed at least once = 75%

Explain the procedure and results of group size variation (3)

• 1-15 confederates

• 3 confederates = 32% conformity

• Little significant increase after

Explain the procedure and results of unanimity variation (2)

• Unanimity = Dissenter gave different answer to rest of group

• Conformity rate dropped to 9%

Explain the procedure and results of task difficulty variation (2)

• Task difficulty = stimulus and comparison lines are more similar in length

• Conformity increased with task difficulty

Explain reasons for believing that participants in Asch’s experiment responded to demand characteristics (3)

• Participants knew they were in an experiment

• Suspicious of: confederate acting, oddness of task

What did Asch do to reduce the possibility of participants responding to demand characteristics (2)

• Deceived them

• Told them the study was about perception of line length

Identify 1 feature of Asch’s experiment that makes it lacking in ecological validity (2)

• task was trivial - has no real consequences

• real life conformity is more important - includes moral dilemmas

Identify ways in which the ‘groups’ in Asch’s study are similar and different to everyday groups / Population/Ecological Validity (2)

• Participants were the same age, gender and background as confederates (American Male Undergrads)

• Groups were strangers

• Reduces population validity / generalisability

• Reduces ecological validity

Explain limitations of the sample Asch used (3)

• All American Male Undergrads

• Sample is unrepresentative of the general public

• Cross-culture studies find higher conformity rates in collectivistic cultures than individualistic cultures

Explain how Asch’s study can be criticised for lack of protection of participants (2)

• Stressful to give different answer than rest of group

• More stressful than everyday life

Explain how Asch’s study can be criticised for deception of participants (2)

• told the study was on line length - it was conformity

• told others were participants - they were confederates