Variables affecting conformity

• What is a limitation of variables affecting conformity?

  Methodological issues

  • Artificial - not a valid measure of real-life conformity where conforming takes place in a social context and often with people we know rather than strangers.
  • Gender bias - Male sample so may not be representative of female behaviour.
• What is another limitation of variables affecting conformity?

  Child of its time

  • Asch’s finding is unique because they took place in a particular period of US history where conformity was more important.
  • In 1956, US was in McCarthyism (strong anti-communist period) where people were scared to go against the majority, and so more likely to conform.
  • Perrin and Spencer repeated study some years later (1980) and found only one conforming response out of 396 trials, where a majority unanimously gave the same wrong answer.
  • But in a subsequent study where they used youths on probation as participants and probation officers as the confederates, they found similar levels of conformity to those back in the 1950s.
  • This shows conformity is more likely when the cost of the not conforming are high.
• What is another limitation of variables affecting conformity?

  Problems with determining the effect of group size

  • Bond points out no other studies other than Asch used a majority group size greater than 9.
  • Asch concluded that a majority size of 3 was sufficient for maximum influence so subsequent studies have used three as majority
  • Bond points out no other studies other than Asch used a majority size greater than 9
  • This suggests we know little about the effects of group size on conformity.
• What is another limitation of variables affecting conformity?

  Unconvincing confederates

  • Asch’s study is that the confederates may not have acted convincingly.
  • If the confederates did not act convincingly when giving the incorrect answer, it could affect validity of the study.
  • Mori and Arai overcame this problem by getting participants to wear glasses with special polarising filters.
  • Three participants wore identical glasses that gave same stimuli, and one participant wore different ones, so they saw the stimuli differently.
  • They found similar results to Asch.
  • This suggests that the confederates in Asch’s study acted convincingly and so reinforces the validity of his findings.