Conformity - Aschs Research

What is conformity?

When a person changes their behaviour or opinions due to real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

What did Solomon Asch do?

Created a procedure to assess to what extent people will conform to the opinions oof others, even in an unambiguous situation were the answer is obvious

What was the method of the baseline procedure ?

123 American me, in groups of 6-8 (1 participant (P) per group the rest were confederates), shown 2 white cards one showing a single line the other 3 lines. Asked which of the 3 matched the target line. P was asked last or second to last always. Confederates always gave the same incorrect answer 12/18 trials. Measured how an many times e P would conform and give the group answer at her there the correct one.

What were results of the baseline procedure?

P’s conformed to confederates 36.8% of the time, 75% of P’s conformed on at least one trial, 25% of P’s never conformed.

What is informative social influence (ISI)?

P’s genuinely believed that confederates were right and they were wrong

What is normative social influence (NSI)?

P’s believes they were right but gave the wrong answer to fit in

What were the three variational studies and what were their conclusions?

Group size, lack of unanimity, increased task difficulty. They suggested that situational variables (environmental factors) affect rates of conformity.

What are the three conditions that will make conformity more likely?

There are one or more people present (though no change after three), there is no unamity in the conforming social group, the task is more difficult so people assume others are right.

What is a strength of the conclusions?

Research support

What evidence is here to strengthen the research support?

Lucas et al (2006)

Research support from Lucas et al (2006)

- Asked participants to solve easy and hard maths problems

- Given answers from three other students (fake)

- Conformed to wrong answers more often when the problems were harder

Is there a counterpoint to the research support given by Lucas et al (2006)?

Refuting research from Lucas et al (2006)

Participants who had higher confidence in maths abilities conformed less on harder tasks compared to those with less confidence

What are the limitations of Aschs wor b