asch

• when did it take place originally

  1955
• overview of the experiment

  -participants were told they were being tested on perception of lines

  -one naive participant in a room of 6 confederates

  -naive participants seated one from the end
• how many naive participants were there


  123, male american students
• how many control trials were there


  720 and only 3 mistakes
• findings


  37% of answers given in critical trials were incorrect

  75% of people conformed at least once
• participants reasons for conforming


  -wanted to please the experimenter and thought they had misunderstood the instructions

  -didn't want to appear different

  -some genuinely believed the majority was right

  -some thought their eyesight was at fault and they couldn't see as well as everyone else
• what other experiments were made by changing variables


  -put a confederate in the 3rd seat who always gave the right answer

  -participants wrote down the answer instead of saying aloud

  -asch used 3 confederates instead of 7

  -asch used 2 confederates instead of 7

  -made the space between the lines smaller so it was harder
• what happened to conformity rates when there was a confederate in the 3rd seat who always gave the right anwer


  conformity dropped to 5% because they had an ally
• what happened to conformity rates when participants wrote down their answer instead of saying it aloud


  conformity dropped because they showed it privately
• what happened to conformity rates when asch used 3 confederates instead of 7


  stayed the same as there was still a majority
• what happened to conformity rates when asch used 2 confederates instead of 7


  conformity dropped because there wasn't a majority
• what happened to conformity when asch made the task harder


  conformity increased
• what factors did asch conclude influenced conformity


  -group size

  -unanimity (the extent to which all members agree)

  -task difficulty
• conclusion for group size


  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
• conclusion for unanimity (the extent to which all members agree)


  conformity decreased with a confederate which gave the correct answer or another wrong answer (breaking the unanimity of the group)

  The presence of the dissenting confederate enabled the naive participant to act independently.
• conclusion for task difficulty


  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
• successes/validity with aschs experiment


  internal validity (is the study measuring what it says its measuring)

  -yes as it is a lab study we have a good control of external factors eg:

  - participants could all see the same lines

  -all seated the same distance from the stimulus

  -instructions all the same

  -confederates all the same through every trial
• validity issues with aschs experiment


  -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)
• What did Smith and Bond find in 1933?


  people in collectivist cultures conform more

  -indian teachers 58% conformity

  -zimbabwe 51%

  -uk 17%
• ethical issues with aschs study


  deception: were not told the true aims, told the confederates were also naive participants

  
  

  AND THEREFORE, couldn't give informed consent because they didn't know the true aims

  
  

  were not protected from harm, mild harm in the form of embarrassment for feeling stupid infront of other participants but harm nonetheless