ASCH (1955) - CONFORMITY

AIM:

To further investigate the extent and conditions under which social pressure from a majority group affects conformity

METHOD:

123 male college students from various American colleges were placed in groups with confederates. Each group was shown two cards: one with a single line and the other with three lines of different lengths. The task was to identify which of the three lines matched the length of the single line. Each participant took part in 18 trials. In 12 of these, the confederates gave intentionally incorrect answers (critical trials). The participant was always sat at the end of the row and went after all confederates.

RESULTS:

On average, participants conformed to the incorrect majority on 37% of the critical trials. Approximately 76% of participants conformed at least once, while 24% of participants never conformed. Only 5% conformed on all 12 critical trials. In a control group where participants made judgements in isolation, there was a very low error rate (less than 1%)

CONCLUSION:

The study confirmed and extended the findings of the 1951 experiment, demonstrating a strong tendency for individuals to conform to the majority even when the majority is clearly incorrect. This illustrates the powerful influence of social pressure on individual judgements.

EVALUATION: