Asch's Research into Conformity

Original study - Aims

Asch carried out a study to investigate if people would conform to the majority when they know the majority is wrong.

Original Study - Procedure

123 American Male Undergrad students were used in the study. They were tested in groups of 7 - one participant being studied and 6 being confederates. All of the group were shown 2 cards (one with a standard line, one with 3 comparison lines - one of which was the standard line). Each group member stated aloud, in turn, which comparison line was the same length as the standard line - all confederates unanimously chose the same wrong answer in 12 ‘critical trials’ out of 18 trials. The participant answered second-to-last.

Original Study - Findings

Participants conformed to the unanimous incorrect answer on 37% of the critical trials. 74% of participants conformed at least once. When participants were interviewed after the experiment Asch found participants continued to privately trust their own perceptions and judgements but changed their public behaviours and gave incorrect answers to avoid disapproval from other members of the group.

Original study - Conclusions

Asch suggested that participants conformed due to normative social influence which resulted in compliance. Even in unambiguous (obvious) situations, there may be a strong group pressure to conform, especially if the group is a unanimous majority.

Variables Affecting Conformity

Asch carried out a number of variations of his original procedure in order to investigate variables affecting conformity. These variables are: Group size, unanimity and task difficulty.

Group Size

Asch varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15 and found a curvilinear relationship (significant to a point) between group size and conformity rate. Conformity increased when the group size increased from 1 confederate (3%) to 2 confederates (13%) to 3 confederates (32%), but exceeding this confederate numbers did not significantly increase rates of conformity.

Unanimity

Asch used a lone dissenter (a single confederate that disagreed with other confederates) in tested groups. When the lone dissenter gave the correct answer throughout testing conformity rates fell to 5.5%. When the lone dissenter gave a different incorrect answer throughout testing conformity rates fell to 9%. Therefore, conformity decreases as unanimity decreases.

Task Difficulty

Asch mode the procedure task more difficult by making the differences between the line lengths smaller. In these more ambiguous conditions conformity rates significantly increased as participants were swayed by Informational Social Influence (ISI) where people conform due to a desire to be right.

Con - Asch - McCarthyism

One weakness of Asch’s findings is they they potentially have a low eternal (temporal and ecological) validity. Asch’s research was carried out in 1950s America during the era of McCarthyism when there was a fear of being different due to worries of being persecuted like those who were different and consequently suspected of communism. Other studies, including one that tested science and engineering students in late 1970s England found only one conforming response in 396 critical trials. Therefore, this suggests that Asch’s research cannot be generalised to the wider population as he tested levels of conformity in a time and place where the cost of non-conformity was high, explaining the high levels of conformity he found. 

Con - Asch - Ethical

One weakness of Asch’s research is that is has ethical issues due to its use of deception. Asch’s original procedure deceived its studied participants without informed consent. This caused stress and psychological harm to these participants as they became paranoid during the critical trials, some reporting they thought there was a problem with their eyes. Therefore, Asch’s research arguably did not discover findings that could justify the harm he caused for participants.

Pro - Asch - Replicable

Detailed procedure, operationalised variables etc. Has been repeated across the globe and has found conformity within most locations and time periods during this situation. Therefore some validity/reliability of findings can be established.