Asch's research

• Asch studied 123 American male undergraduates in a line comparison test. Each participant was tested individually with a group of 6-8 confederates.
• In the first trial, only 5% of participants conformed at least once. In the last trial, this increased to 76%.
• The participants were asked to match the length of one line (the standard) against three other lines (comparison). The correct answer was obvious, but the confederates gave incorrect answers on 12 out of 18 trials.
• The participants gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time. Overall 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials, 75% conformed at least once.
• When interviewed afterwards most participants said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI).
• Asch carried out 3 variations of his study:

  • group size
  • unanimity
  • task difficulty
• Group Size:

  With 3 confederates conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%. But the addition of further confederates made little difference. This suggests that a small majority is not sufficient influence but, at the other extreme, there is no need for a majority of more than three.
• Unanimity:

  Asch introduced a dissenting confederate who sometimes gave the correct answer and sometimes gave an incorrect one. Conformity was reduced by a quarter. This suggests that the influence of a majority depends to some extent on the group being unanimous.`
• Task difficulty:

  Asch made the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length and he found that conformity increased. This suggests ISI plays a greater role when the task becomes harder. This is because the situation is more ambiguous, so we are more likely to look to others for guidance and to assume they are right and we are wrong.
• Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch's study with engineering students in the UK. Only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials. This may be because the engineering students were more confident about measuring lines or because the 1950s were an especially conformist time in America. This is a limitation of Asch's study as it means the Asch effect may not be consistent over time and so is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour.
• Also, participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with the demands of the situation. The task was relatively trivial and so there was really no reason not to conform. This means the findings do not generalise to everyday situations. This is especially true when the consequences of conformity might be more important, and when we interact with other people in groups in a much more direct way.
• Only men were tested by Asch. Other research suggests women may be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned with social relationships. The men in Asch's study were all from America, and individualist culture (people are more concerned about themselves than social groups). Studies conducted in collectivist cultures have found higher rates of conformity. This shows that conformity levels are sometimes even higher than Asch found. Asch's findings may only apply to American men as he didn't account for gender or cultural differences.