Ashe

• What was the aim

  To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group will affect a person to conform
• Methods

  • Lab study
  • Ashe put PPTs in a room with 7 confederates (PPTs were unaware that the other PPTs weren't actual PPTs.)
  • They all had to complete a judgement line task
  • confederates previously agreed on what their answer would be
  • each person in the room had to state aloud which comparison line was the most large
  • the answer was always obvious
  • 18 trials in total and confederates gave incorrect answers in 12 trials
• Results

  • 36% of PPTs in each trial conformed to the incorrect majority
  • 75% conformed on at least one trial
• Conclusion

  • After being interviewed, most PPTs said they didn't believe in conforming answers but they went along with it due to the fear of being ridiculed
  • A few said they did believe the group's answers were correct
  • Therefore mostly NSI(A desire to be accepted or liked)
• What are the variables that influences conformity

  • Size of group
  • Unanimity
  • Difficulty of task
• Strength - His study supports NSI

  75% of ppts conformed at least once despite the correct answer being unambiguous. Ppt conformed because they wanted to avoid the discomfort of standing out or being rejected. In a variation in which ppts could privately write down their responses, the conformity rate dropped 12.5%.
• Strength - increased ambiguity

  The variation in task difficulty increased the ambiguity of the correct answer: when ppts were more unsure of the correct answer they were more likely to rely on the judgement of others. This supports the ISI explanation
• Strength - High internal validity

  It was a lab experiment so it was carefully controlled and he used standardised procedures, ppts viewed the same lines in the same order with the same responses from Confederates
• Weakness - Perrin and Spencer (1981)

  They suggest that his work lacks Temporal validity and high conformity rates due to the cultural conditions in cold war America. In their replication with British students they found conformity in only 1 trial in 396
• Strength - Meta-analysis

  In a meta-analysis of 133 studies using Ashe line judgement task across 17 countries, Bond (1996) found support for Asche's original findings but also much higher rates of conformity in collectivist cultures, which have social norms that prioritise consensus, compared to individualistic societies that value independence and personal freedom
• Weakness - Lacks mundane realism

  His tasks lack mundane realism, matching the lengths of a simple task and are highly controlled so unlike real-life social interactions, additionally conforming often happens with people we know not with total strangers
• Group size

  P: An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group.

  E: low conformity with group size of confederates were less than 3 - any more than 3 and the conformity rose by 30%

  E: ppl are more likely to conform if all members of the group are in agreement and give the same answer, because it will increase their confidence in correctness of the group, and decrease their confidence in their own answer.

  L: This shows that the majority must be at least 3 to exert an influence, but an overwhelming majority is not needed in all instances to bring about conformity
• Unamity

  P: more likely to conform when the group is unanimous (all give the same answer)

  E: When joined by another ppt or a confederate who gave the correct answer, conformity fell from 32% to 5.5%. If different answers are given, it falls from 32% to 9%.

  E: the more unanimous the group is, the more confidence the ppt. will have that they are all correct, and therefore the ppts answer is more likely to be incorrect

  from

  Link: Unanimity is vital in establishing a consistent majority view, which is particularly important by providing NSI by preventing any conflicting views from arising.
• more likely to conform when the Task is difficult

  E: e.g., Asch altered the (comparison) lines making them more similar in length. Since it was harder to judge the correct answer conformity increased.

  E: we are more uncertain of our answer so we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity

  L: This suggests that ISI is a major mechanism for conformity when the situation is ambiguous and the individual does not have enough of their knowledge or information to make an informed decision independently, and so has to look towards others.
• Partipants of Ashe study

  • 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; consisting of 1 true participant and 5 confederates (actors/people in on the experiment)
• Ashe findings

  • 36.8% conformed
  • 25% never conformed
  • 75% confirmed at least once in a control trial,
  • Only 1% of responses given by participants were incorrect (which eliminates eyesight/perception as an extraneous variable, thus increasing the validity of the conclusions drawn)
• A01 Paragraph of Ashe

  Asch (1951) conducted a lab experiment to investigate conformity. He used a line judgment task where participants were asked to match the length of a standard line to one of three comparison lines. Each participant was placed in a group with 6–8 confederates (actors who were in on the experiment). The real participant always answered last or second to last. The confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trials. Asch found that 75% of participants conformed at least once, and the overall conformity rate was 36.8%. This showed that even in a clear and unambiguous task, people would conform to the majority.