Social Influence - Asch & Variables affecting conformity (3)

What was asch’s study of conformity ?

• Asch (1951,1955) set up a study to investigate majority influence (conforming to the group)

• Asch was Interested in seeing the extent to which group pressure could influence an individual to go against what their eyes were telling them

• →Would the pressure of being in a group who all agreed as to the wrong answer force someone to also give an (obvious) wrong answer to a simple question?

Outline Asch’s Study

• 123 male students from the USA made up the sample of naive participants

• Each participant sat at a table with 6-8 other male students who were confederates of Asch

• Group was shown a series of cards with lines shown on them:

• → Their task was to say which of the three lines on the right of the card was the same length as the line shown on the left of the card.

• Each participant (including the confederates) was asked in turn to say which of the three lines on the right was the same length as the line on the far left of the slide.

• There were 18 trials per group

• → confederates gave the right answer on the first few trials

• There were 12 critical trials within the total of 18 trials

• → On each critical trial , the confederates all gave the same incorrect answer to the question of line length.

Results of Asch’s Study

• Results showed that -

• participants gave the wrong answer on 36.8% of the critical trials;

• 75% of participants conformed at least once.

What did asch conclude ?

• Concluded that people will conform to the majority even when the situation is unambiguous

• → It was clear what the correct answer was per trial yet some participants still gave the wrong answer after hearing the confederates give the same wrong answer.

• People conform due to NSI (fitting in with the group) and ISI (because they believe the group is better informed than they are)

• Conformity to the majority is common but not inevitable

• → 25% of participants didn’t conform on any of the trials - showed resistance to social influence in the form of group pressure

STRENGTH 1 - EVAL OF ASCH’S STUDY OF CONFORMITY

• Asch used a standardised procedure (e.g. same group number per trial , same number of trials , same questions asked)

• → Standardised procedure means that the study can be replicated many times over

• → Repeated replications should show consistent results , which equals high reliability

STRENGTH 2- EVAL OF ASCH’S STUDY OF CONFORMITY

• Replications of Asch’s study (Smith&bond 1996) have been used to identify cross-cultural differences in conformity , which gives validity to idea that conformity is linked to group cohesion

• →Highest rates of conformity in the study were from collectivist cultures

• → These cultures value the needs of the group above individual needs.

LIMITATION 1 - EVAL OF ASCH’S STUDY OF CONFORMITY

• Asch’s research took place in the 1940s/50s , when conformity was arguably higher , directly after Wold War II and before the civil rights and feminist movement

• → This observation has led to the study being labelled ‘a child of its time’

• → Thus , the study lacks temporal validity

LIMITATION 2 - EVAL OF ASCH’S STUDY OF CONFORMITY

• possible that some of the participants may have guessed the aim of the study due to the ease of the task

• → If any participants had guessed the aim, then they may simply have gone along with giving the wrong answer , as this is what they thought was required of them (known as response bias)

• → Response bias reduces the validity of the findings.

What did asch conduct ?

• Conducted variations of his original line-length procedure to test how conformity changes depending on the condition

• GROUP SIZE, UNANIMITY, TASK DIFFICULTY

How did asch test the effect of group size?

• With one confederate , conformity dropped to just 3% of the critical trials.

• When the group size increased to two confederates , conformity was 12.8% of the critical trials

• In a group containing three confederates , conformity rose to 31.8 % of the critical trials.

• - The above findings is the same percentage as in asch’s original experiment , in which there were 6-8 confederates

• - Therefore conformity peaks with three confederates , once majority pressure is established.

What is Unanimity ?

• Unanimity refers to the extent of agreement or concensus across a group

How was the effect of unanimity tested ?

• In Asch original procedure the confederates all gave the same incorrect answer on the critical trials.

• To test effect of unanimity Asch asked one of the confederates to give the correct answer (i.e. the non-conforming answer) throughout , resulting in conformity dropping to 5%

• Findings shows that support from another person makes it easier to resist the pressure to conform to the majority

• IN another variation , one of the confederates gave a different incorrect answer to the majority , resulting in conformity dropping to 9%

• → Disrupting group unanimity is therefore one way to reduce conformity.

How was the effect of task difficulty tested ?

• Task was made more difficult by minimising the difference between the length of the lines. - Task becomes more ambiguous

• Asch found the rate of conformity when faced with the ambiguous task increased

• → Thus , when a task is difficult (ambiguous) and people conform to the incorrect answer , can be explained by ISI.

• → When a task is easy and people conform to the incorrect answer , it can be explained by NSI.