Asch’s Study

Aim

To investigate the effect of group pressure on an individual’s opinion in situations where the answer is obvious (unambiguous)​

Sample

123 American, male students who did not know the aim of the study.​

Procedure

1. Participants were sat in a semi-circle in a group of 6-8 male confederates.​

2. The men were shown two large cards, on with a single standard line and the other with three comparison lines. ​

3. They took turns to call out which of the three lines they thought was the same length as a ‘standard’ line (see below) with the real participant always answering second to last.​

4. Although there was always a fairly obvious solution to this task, the confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer. Asch was interested in whether the ‘real’ participants would stick to what they believed to be right, or cave in to the pressure of the majority and go along with its decision.​

5. There were 18 trials in total. The first few, the confederates gave the correct answer but on the 12 ‘critical’ trials, they all gave the same wrong answer. ​

Findings

On the 12 critical trials, the participants gave the same wrong answer 36.8% of the time.​

So they agreed with the wrong answer given by the confederates. ​

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75% conformed at least once. ​

Generalisability

• All males – females may be more or less likely to conform​

• 123 participants – this is a small sample and not representative of the wider population​

• Based on American participants – this is an individualist culture (focus on the self rather than the group – collectivist). Collectivist cultures may be more likely to conform because they believe in the groups needs rather than their own. ​

Validity

• It’s an artificial task​

• This does not reflect everyday situations​

• The task was trivial because they just had to match lines, so pps may have conformed more​

• If the task had bigger consequences the individuals may not have conformed​

• This questions the accuracy (validity) of Asch’s findings.​

Application

• This study was repeated in the UK in the 80s and out of 369 trials, the researchers found just one conforming response. ​

• ​

• This suggests that Asch’s research is outdated and the results may just reflect that time era in America.​

Social Factor 1: Group Size. What does this suggest?

In one of Asch’s variations, he found this was true, up to a certain point​

• With two confederates conformity was 13.6%​

• With three confederates, conformity was 31.8%​

The more people in a group, the more likely people are to conform as there is greater pressure. ​

However, adding more confederates after 3 made little difference to conformity rates. ​

Social Factor 2: Anonymity. What is Anonymity?

anonymity - Nobody knows who you are. ​

Asch did a variation of his study where pps were able to write their responses down anonymously​

What do you think happened to conformity rates?​

​They DECREASED. ​

Social Factor 3: Task Difficulty. Why is this?

• In one of Asch’s variations of his study, he made the task harder by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length.

• He found that conformity increased​​

  People feel less confident about their answer and look to the group for the right answer. ​