asch found that with 3 confederates conformity rose to 31.8% from 17% with 2 and 4% with 1. This suggests that conformity will increase with group size but plateaus when the majority is greater than 3
conformity increased under the conditions where the task was harder, this suggests that informal social influence plays a greater role when the task becomes harder because the situation becomes harder and more ambiguous we are more likely to look to others for guidance and assume they are right
-demand characteristics -> participants guessed the aims of the experiment which made them answer unnaturally to either please the experimenter or demonstrate independence
-ecological validity: not similar to real life + therefore not relatable and meaningless/low stakes.
Participants also had to answer aloud so mightve wanted to impress strangers
line judging is artificial and unusual with little investment unlike a jury convicting a criminal
-historical validity: due to the time it was recorded, in the 1950s when being different was associated with being communist people may have conformed more
-population validity: participants are all male american citizens which is not representative of a whole society.
More collectivist cultures are found by smith and bond (1993) are found to conform more (58% indian teachers compared to 17% in uk for 4 british studies)