2. Conformity: Asch's research

• What researcher investigated informational social influence?


  Jenness
• What was the procedure of Jenness experiment?


  1.  experiment was an ambiguous situation with a glass bottle filled with beans
  2. asked pps individually to estimate how many beans the bottle contained
  3. were put into groups in a room with bottle and asked to provide a group estimate through discussion
  4. pps were asked to estimate number on their own again to find whether their initial estimates had altered based on majority
  5. Jenness interviewed pps individually again and asked if they wanted to change their original estimates or stay with group estimate
• What were Jenness's findings?


  almost all changed their individual guesses to be closer to the group estimates
• What was the conclusion of Jenness's experiment?

  • results show when in ambiguous situation a person will look for guidance on how to behave
  • this is internalising the behaviours and thoughts of others
  • they publicly change their behaviour and privately change their thoughts
• What researcher investigated normative social influence?


  Asch
• What was the procedure of Asch's experiment?


  1. each pps sat in a row with confederates
  2. all were shown a card with a line, followed by a card with 3 lines on it labelled A, B and C
  3. pps and confederates were asked to say whether A, B or C matched the length of the line
  4. the pps was always one of the last to respond to the question
  5. for the first 2 trials, the confederates gave the correct answer
  6. for the third trial, the confederates would all give the same incorrect answer
• What were the findings of Asch's experiment?


  •  pps conformed to confederate giving an incorrect answer on 37% of the time
  • when confederates didn't give incorrect answers, pps were incorrect 1% of the time
  • 75% of pps conformed at least once
• What was the conclusion of Asch's experiment?


  • results show when in an obvious situation an individual can be influence by others as they want to be accepted
  • known as normative social influence and leads to individual complying with behaviours of others
  • publicly change their behaviour but privately do not change thoughts
• What is a positive of Jenness's and Asch's experiments?


  • real world application
  • useful to encourage positive behaviours in society
  • e.g. environmentally friendly
• What are the 3 variables affecting conformity?


  • group size
  • unanimity
  • task difficulty
• How did Asch change the group size in his study to measure the affect on confomity?


  1. changed amount of confederates
  2. ranged from 1 to 15 confederates
• What were the findings of measuring group size on conformity?


  • with 3 confederates giving wrong answers, conformity rose to 31.8% then plateaued
  • further confederates made little difference
  • conformity reaches its highest with majority being 3
• Hoe did Asch change the unanimity of his study to measure the effect on conformity?


  1. introduced a confederate who disagreed with the others (a decenter)
  2. sometimes the new confederate gave the correct answer and sometimes the incorrect answer
• What were the findings of measuring unanimity on conformity?


  • presence of a decenter decrease conformity by 1/4 of level when it was unanimous
  • less likely to conform if they have support
• How did Asch change the task difficulty of his study to measure affect on conformity?


  1. made judging the length of lines more difficult
  2. made stimulus and comparison line closer in length
• What were the findings of measuring task difficulty on conformity?


  • conformity increased as task difficulty increases
  • suggests information social influence plays greater role when tasks become ambiguous
• What are the strengths of Asch's study?


  • highly controlled and standardised procedure - high reliability
• What are the weaknesses of Asch's study?


  • lacks temporal validity - conducted in period of McCarthyism - time of USA anti-communism where people where afraid to be different
  • lacks mundane realism/ecological validity - unrealistic task - unapplicable to real life
  • response to demand characteristics - lack of realism led to guessing aim - lack internal validity