Conformity- Asch's Research

• Procedure

  123 American male students were tested individually with a group of 6-8 confederates.

  On each trial they identified the length of a standard line.

  Confederates started to make obvious mistakes on 12 of the 18 trials.
• Results

  Naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time.

  25% of participants never gave a wrong answer.

  75% conformed at least once.
• Variables affecting conformity

  Group Size

  With 2 confederates conformity was 13.6% and with 3 it was 31.8%.

  Adding more made little difference.
• Variables affecting conformity

  Task Difficulty

  Making the task more difficult increased conformity
• Variables affecting conformity

  Unanimity

  Presence of a dissenter reduced conformity to 25%
• Evaluations- All Negative

  Asch's findings may be a 'child of the time'.

  The situation and task were atrificial.

  Findings may only apply to certain situations.

  Ethical Issues