Asch's variations

what variations did Asch include ?

• group size

• unanimity

• task difficulty

why did Asch vary group isze ?

to determine if the size of majority affects conformity

what range of confederates did Asch use ?

1-15

when there was just 1 confederate , what was the conformity rate ?

3% on critical trials

what was the conformity rates when group size increased to 2 confederates ?

12.8%

what was conformity rates when group size was 3 confederates ?

why is this number interesting ?

What does it demonstrate about conformity ?

32%

same rate as asch’s original study of 6-8 confederates

conformity reaches highest level with just 3 confederates , once a majority pressure is created

what happened when Asch used 15 confederates ?

rate dropped slightly to 29%

potentially due to suspicion from participants and conforming is less in larger groups

what does unanimity refer to?

the extent that members of majority all agree with eachother

Asch’s original study had confederates give the same incorrect answer , what did Asch vary in his new study ?

one confederate was instructed to give a correct answer throughout

what happened to the rate of conformity when one confederate gave correct answer ?

conformity dropped to 5 %

What did Asch demonstrate through his variation of inanimity with one agreeing Confederate?

if real participant has social support , then they are more likely to resist pressure to conform

what was the second variation of unanimity that Asch conducted ?

one confederate gave a different incorrect answer to the majority

what happened to conformity rates in the second variation of unanimity ?

what does this show about unanimity and conformity?

dropped to 9 %

shows that when the unanimous majority view is broken then conformity reduces significantly even if the answer is wrong

what did Asch change with the variation on task difficulty ?

originally had an obvious answer , changed to make more difficult by making the difference between the lengths of lines more similar and more ambiguous

what did Asch find when tasks became more difficult ?

conformity increased

what is the the type of social influence that caused this conformity and why ?

informational social influence , participants look for guidance to direct to correct answer

try to recall all of the results alongside the variations