Factors affecting Conformity

• Group size - 3 seems to be optimum for conformity.


  Asch found very little conformity when the majority consisted of just one or two confederates. But when the majority had 3 confederates, the conformity rates jumped to 30%. Further increases of the group size did not change the conformity rates significantly suggesting group size is important up to a certain point. Campbell and Fairey suggest group size may have different effect depending on the type of judgement being made and the motivation of the individual. e.g. No objective right answer = NSI, Right answer = ISI
• The Unanimity of Majority - people conform more when everyone agrees.

  In Asch's original study, the confederates unanimously gave the same incorrect answer. What would happen if this unanimity was distributed? When the real participant was given the support of either another participant or a confederate who gave right answers, the conformity levels dropped to just 5.5%
• The Unanimity of Majority - people conform more when everyone agrees.

  What would happen if the confederate gave both an answer that was different from the majority and different from the true answer? In this condition, conformity dropped to 9%. Asch concluded breaking unanimity was a majority factor in reducing conformity.
• Difficulty of Task

  In one variation, Asch made differences between line lengths much smaller. Under these circumstances, the level of conformity increased. Lucas et al (2006) investigated this relationship further. They found situational differences (task difficulty) and individual differences (self-efficacy) to be important. Self-efficacy s someone's confidence in their own abilities. When exposed to math problems in an Asch-type task, those with high self-efficacy remained more independent, even when task difficulty has hard.