Asch's study

• Asch's research into conformity

  Participants were 123 American undergraduate males all collected via

  volunteer sampling(keen could lead to demand characteristic) A true P was seated in a row among 6 confederates. The participant was always 6th in the row of 7 (standardised procedure - same for all p's). The stated goal of the study was to examine perceptual judgements & the participants were instructed to pick which of 3 lines “matched” a standard line. The true P could see that one of the lines was obviously a match, the others were obviously wrong. Their responses were recorded by Asch.
• 18 trials in total. 12 out of 18 of them were ‘critical trials’

  On these critical trials, the confederates were all instructed to give the

  same wrong answer.

  75% of P’s in this experiment, conformed at least once with the group

  and picked the wrong sized line.

  On average the conformity rate was 33%
• An issue with Asch’s research is that there is cultural and gender

  bias.Only studied conformity in 123 white American males.Smith analysed Asch’s results by researching a number of different cultures, and found in individualist cultures,average conformity rates were 25%, whereas collectivist cultures(such as Asia)had an average conformity rate of 37%.The difference in conformity rates could be due to conformity being viewed more favourably in collectivist cultures, making Asch’s research lack external validity as findings cannot be generalised to all cultures. incomplete measure of conformity
• A further criticism is Asch's research may be a 'child of its time'. The study was conducted in the 1950's when conformity was high. Perrin & Spencer replicated a similar study in the 1980's and found completely different results. They only obtained one conforming response out of 396 trials. This shows Asch's research lacks temporal validity because conformity was higher in that era so the findings don't apply in the modern day. Therefore, Asch's research is a weak measure of conformity.
• Another issue is that the confederates may have been unconvincing. The p's in Asch's study were volunteers,which could lead to demand characteristics,as they knew they were being studied. Also, the answer of which line matched 'line x' was obvious so it made it clear the confederates were lying. This would mean the p's were not showing conformity behaviour,meaning Asch was not measuring what was intended,making the results lack internal validity. Therefore, Asch's research is a weak measure of conformity.
• Peeling the effects of conformity

  Asch's findings can also be challenged by variations to the situation.

  The conformity rate in asch's original study was 33%,however when (effect on conformity chosen) changed, conformity was affected ------

  This shows how conformity can change due to the situation,

  Making Asch's research ------
• effect on conformity - Group size

  Conformity is highest when there are 3 confederates

  Asch found when there are 1-2 confederates, there was very little conformity.
• Effect on conformity - Unanimity of the majority

  When the real P was given support by either another real P or a confederate

  (fellow dissenting peer), conformity to the majority dropped significantly,

  reducing the percentage of incorrect answers from 33% to 5.5%.
• Effect on conformity - task difficulty

  When line lengths were much smaller (so the correct answer was less

  obvious), the level of conformity increased.