Asch’s research into conformity (1951)

• Conformity


  Type of social influence involving a change in beliefs or behaviour to fit in with a group
• Aim

  Investigate the extent to which social pressure from the majority group influences a person to conform
• Method

  • lab X with androcentric sample of 123 US males
  • pps told participating in visual perception study (deception)
  • Put in groups of 6-8 confeds and shown 4 cards- 1 consisted of a standard line and the other had 3 comparison lines (1 being same length)
  • Each member stated line that matched, pp always answered last/2nd last
  • 18 trials of unambiguous line tests with 12 critical trials of confeds incorrectly answering
  • CG-36 pps, no confeds
• Findings

  • average conformity rate 32%
  • 75% conformed at least once
  • 5% conformed every time
• Conclusion

  • pps most likely to conform in group settings in ambiguous situations
• Variables affecting: Task difficulty 


  Harder tasks (length of lines made more similar sized) increased conformity rate as the situation became more ambiguous so pps looked to other for guidance (ISI)
• Variables affecting: Unanimity


  Introduced dissenter who gave the right answer=5% conformity or different incorrect answer=9%, enabled pps to behave more independently
• Variables affecting: Group Size


  Varied the number of confeds in each group between (1-16) and conformity increased but to certain point. 1 confed=3%, 2 confeds=13%, 3 confeds=33%. After this CR decreased
• Strength/CA- Nomothetic methods


  • lab X with standardised procedures and high controlled settings
  • Allows more control of EVs and can establish causal relationship
  • High internal validity
  • but artificial environment produces unnatural behaviour
• Strength/CA- Research support from Lucas et al (2006)


  • asked pps to solve easy and hard maths problems and pps given answers that were falsely claimed to be from 3 other students
  • Pps often agreed more to the wrong answers when the problems were harder
  • Supports aschs concept of task difficulty affecting conformity
  • But Lucas’s study showed that conformity related to confidence so high confidence equals less conformity
  • Asch didn’t consider individual differences affecting conformity
• limitation/CA- ethical concerns


  • pps deceived as told it was a visual perception study and had induced stress/embarassment (psychological harm)
  • But can be argued that deception is necessary to assess the nature of conformity
  • Pls also had post debrief and took part in an interview which likely reduced stress
• Limitation- gender and culture bias


  • androcentric sample of 123 US males
  • Example of BB as results were applied as a general law but Bond and Smith found that women are more conformist than men so their behaviour would be different
  • Also ethnocentric sample as had a westernised US sample
  • Bond and Smith found that conformity rates are higher in collectivist cultures like China due to their societal norm of acting as a community
  • Lacks generalisability