Asch

• What was the Aim to Asch’s study?

  to investigate conformity and majority influence
• what was the sample for Asch’s study?

  • 123 male American undergraduates
  • told they were doing a visual perception task
  • 5 confederates, 1 true participant
• what was the procedure for the study?

  • Asked to match a line that best fit with 3 other options.
  • real participants always last or second to last
  • confederates would give same incorrect answer for 12/18 trials
• what were the critical trials?

  when the confederate gave the same incorrect answer
• what were ashcs findings?

  • 36.8% conformed
  • 25% never conformed
  • 75% conformed at least once
• in a control trial, how many answered correctly?

  99%
• how many participants conformed?

  36.8%
• how many particpants never conformed?

  25%
• how many particpants conformed at least once?

  75%
• what were the 3 factors affecting confomity?

  • group size
  • task difficulty
  • group unanimity
• How does group size affect conformity?

  • an individual is more likely to conform in a larger group
  • low conformity level when group size was less than 3. any more than 3, conformity rose to 30%. conformity does not increase in groups larger than 4
  • increased confidence in correctness of group and decreased confidence in their own answer.
  • majority must be at least 3 to exert an influence
• how does task difficult affect conformity?

  • an individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult
  • ash altered the comparison lines so they were similar in length.
  • more uncertain of their answer so they looked to others
  • informational social influence
• how did unanimity of majority affect conformity?

  • an individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous
  • when joined by a dissenter who gave correct answer, conformity dropped from 32% to 5.5% When dissenter gave different answer to majority, conformity dropped from 32% to 9%
  • The more unanimous the group is, the more confidence the participant has that the group is correct.
  • Informational social influence
• when group size was more than 3, what percentage did conformity rise to?

  30%
• what does unanimous mean?

  all in agreement
• when joined by a dissenter who gave correct answer, what was the percentage change to conformity?

  32% to 5.5%
• when joined by a dissenter who gave a different incorrect answer, what did the percentage change to, to conformity?

  32% to 9%
• what is a dissenter?

  someone who disagrees with the majority
• Evaluate Asch’s time?

  • Possible that 1950s were a conformist time in America.
  • Perrin and spencer (1980) repeated aschs original study with engineer students in uk. Only one conformed out of 396 trials.
  • Society has changed and people are probably less conformist nowadays
  • Asch effect is not consistent over time.
• evaluate artificial situation and task?

  • demand characteristics. the task was trivial and therefore not any reason not to conform.
  • fiske (2014) stated groups did not resemble real life.
  • findings do not generalise to everyday situation
  • low external validity
• evaluate cultural differences?

  • individualistic cultures have a lower chance of conforming.
  • asch used only American men
  • conformity rates were found higher in collectivist cultures
  • aschs findings may only apply to men as he didn’t take gender and cultural differences into account
• What is an individualistic culture?

  People more concerned about themselves rather than their social group
• what is a collectivist culture?

  people are more concerned about social groups