Asch
procedure
Baseline procedure:
123 men tested on a line perception test
answers were clear
they had to say out loud which the right line was (in comparison to x)
participant was always last or next to last with confederates
confederates gave incorrect answers
findings: ppts agreed with incorrect answers 36.8% of the time. there were individual differences eg 25% of ppts never gave a wrong answer
factors affecting conformity:
group size - varied no. of confederates from 1-15. found a curvilinear relationship. conformity increased to 31.8% with 3 confederates but soon levelled off
suggests that people are sensitive to views of others since only one or two people were needed.
unanimity - wondered if non-conforming confederate affects ppt. in one variation, they gave right answer. in another, they gave wrong answer. ppt conformed less when there was a dissenter. conformity rate dropped to less than a quarter of the level it was before
suggests that ppt feels more free to act independently even when confederate wads wrong because it shows cracks in unanimous view
task difficulty - increased the difficulty of the task by making the options more similar to the comparison line, making it more difficult to see the genuine difference. ppts conformed more because ppts couldnt seen the answer as clearly
suggests that conformity increased because ppt seeked guidance from others in order to avoid judgement and embarrassment for being wrong (informational social influence)
AO3
a limitation is that the study lacks mundane realism. asch asked ppts to take part in a line perception test but this doesnt reflect real life situations in which people conform. furthermore, fiske claimed that the groups were not also not reflective of groups which we experience in real life. ppts also knew they were in a research study which means the findings may have been subject to demand characteristics, reducing the validity of the results. due to the lack of ecological and internal validity, it is harder to generalise the findings of the study to real life examples of conformity
another limitation of the study was that there was clear gender bias. asch used an androcentric sample of 123 men. this does not explain conformity in women especially because Neto claimed that women tend to be more conformist than men because they are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted. therefore, the methodology of asch’s study makes the findings too limited to extrapolate and generalise to the rest of the population
another limitation is that it is culturally biased. america is an individualist culture so free thinking is more common. however, in collectivist cultures, it is their norm to conform with large groups to uphold a unanimous view. Bond and Smith found that conformity rates are higher in collectivist groups which supports the view that they are more concerned with social relationships. therefore, asch’s study is limited in its ability to be generalised to the rest of the globe and only offers a part of an explanation for individualist cultures
one strength is that there is research evidence supporting task difficulty as a variable affecting conformity. todd lucas et al conducted a study where ppts were given easy and hard maths problems to solve. they were given answers from three other confederates. they found that conformity was higher when the problem was harder which supports the claim that increased difficulty increases conformity due to informational social influence
However, lucas et al also found that students with more confidence in their abilities conformed less than students who were less confident. this suggests that conformity is more complex and can be affected by individual factors too, which asch did not research, reducing the validity of it