Asch’s research

• What was Asch’s experiment?

  Asch devised an experiment where there was an obvious answer to a line judgement task. If the participant gives an incorrect answer, it would be clear that this was due to group pressure.
• What was the aim of Aschs research?

  to see whether the single real participant would conform to the majority social influence in a situation where the correct answers were always obvious/ unambiguous.
• describe the steps to Asch’s research.

  1. Participants told it was a vision test.
  2. 123 male American undergraduate students tested- naive
  3. each Participant was tested individually with a group of 6 or 8 confederates
  4. On the first few trials the confederates gave correct answer but then began making errors
  5. Confederates gave unanimous wrong answers ‘ critical trials ‘ 12/18.
  6. On the 12/18 critical trials the real participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the fine
  7. From all 123 participants, 75% conformed to at least 1 wrong answer, meaning 25% did not conform on any trials.
• What were Asch’s findings?

  When participants were interviewed afterwards, most said they confirmed to avoid rejection ( NSI )
• What is the ’ child of it’s time ‘ evaluation for Asch’s research?

  Perrin and Spencer carried out Asch’s study 25 years later with engineering students and only 1 conformed out of 396 trials.

  • it may be that engineering students felt more confident about measuring and therefore less conformist, but the 1950s when asch carried out his research was a very conformist time period in america.
• What was a limitation to aschs research?

  Artificial situation and task- participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with the demands of the situation ( demand characteristics). This is a limitation as the findings do not generalise to everyday situations. Lacks mundane realism.
• What does it mean that Asch’s test was Andro centric?

  Only men were tested therefore results are not generalisable to women. Women may be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned with social relationships.
• What may have been an ethical issue with his research?

  The naive participants were deceived as they thought the other people involved in the procedure were also genuine participants like themselves.
• What are the three variables that affect conformity?


  Group size, unanimity, and task difficulty
• How does group size affect conformity according to Asch's findings?


  Conformity to the incorrect answer rose to 31.8% with three confederates
• What was the effect of adding more confederates beyond three in Asch's study?


  Adding more confederates made little difference in conformity
• What effect does unanimity have on conformity?


  The presence of a non-conforming person reduces conformity
• What does Asch's study suggest about the influence of the majority?


  The influence of the majority depends on the group being unanimous
• How does task difficulty affect conformity in Asch's study?


  Conformity increased when the task was made more difficult
• What role does informational social influence (ISI) play when the task is ambiguous?


  ISI plays a greater role when the task is ambiguous
• What are the key findings of Asch's conformity experiments regarding group size, unanimity, and task difficulty?


  • Group size: Conformity rose to 31.8% with three confederates; adding more had little effect.
  • Unanimity: Presence of a non-conforming person reduced conformity.
  • Task difficulty: Increased difficulty led to higher conformity; ISI is more significant in ambiguous tasks.