Asch

• Asch (1951):

  Aim: investigate group pressure in an unambiguous situation
• Asch (1951):

  Method: 123 American men asked to take part in 'task of visual perception'

  2 cards- 1. standard line; 2. three comparison lines

  12 critical trials where confederate gave wrong answer
• Asch (1951):

  Results: participants gave wrong answer 1/3 of the time

  5% of participants gave the same wrong answer on all 12 trials

  25% remained independent
• Asch (1951):

  Conclusion: people are influenced by group peer pressure, though many can resist
• W- Child of the times:

  Perrin & Spencer (1980) repeated Asch's study with engineering students in the UK; only one student conformed in 396 trials. May be affected by students' self-efficacy in measuring lines; Asch's study only reflects conformity in 1950's America. Therefore, Asch effect is not consistent across all situations and time. Low temporal validity
• W- Artificial task:

  Participants know they were in a research study and may have gone along with demand characteristics; trivial tasks involved strangers. Doesn't reflect everyday situations; lacks ecological validity
• W- Participant sample:

  Asch's participants were American men, studies show women are more conformist, possibly out of concern about social relationships. America is an individualistic culture (lower conformity that others). Cannot be generalised to collectivist cultures
• W-Desirability bias:

  Participants may change their behaviour to be what the researcher wants; changing conformity rates. Desirability can still cause conformity out of fear to behaviour different to what is expected of you