Aschs Study

group size procedure, findings and conclusion

p- varied the number of Confederates from 2 to 15

f- at 3 Confederates, conformity rose to 31% , 7 confederates rose to 37% then plateaus as Confederate increase

c- a small majority is not sufficient enough to influence conformity, just as a large majority has a little effort

unanimity

introduced a centre confederate who gave either the correct or other incorrect answer

Conformity reduced from 37% to 25%

Asserting confederate gives the participants confidence to behave independently. The influence of the majority may be dependent on it being unanimous.

task difficulty

made standard and comparison lines more similar in length

Conformity increased

When a task is more difficult/ambiguous conformity occurs due to ISI as people are more likely to look to others for guidance if they are unsure of the correct answers

What was Asch’s aim?

To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform

What was Asch’s procedure?

used a naive participant and 6 to 8 confederates to guess which comparison line was the same length as the other

What were the findings?

naive participants gave a wrong answer about 37% of the time

ppts conformed on 32% of critical trials

25% of ppts did not conform

5% conformed every time

What was conclusion?

most of them said did not believe answers

didnt want to seen as “peculiar” or be ridiculed

suggesting people conform to appear liked, example of NSI

What was Jennes’ aim and procedure

to investigate whether people will change their opinion in an ambiguous setting

ambiguous task to test conformity to group discussions, lab experiment jar - jar of beans

What was Jennes’ findings and conclusions

ppts did alter their original guess following group discussion (males- average of 256 females average- 382

individuals will change their estimate due to ISI in order to appear correct