Asch’s research

• Participants 

  -       123 American male undergraduates

  -       each naive participant was tested against 6 Confederates

  -       naive participant was not aware of the Confederates
• Findings

  -       75% conformed at least once

  -       23% conformed on all critical trials

  -       25% didn't conform at all

  -       overall the naive participant gave the incorrect answer 36.8% of the time

  -       in the control group less than 1% gave an incorrect answer
• Procedure

  -       participants were shown two white cards one with a standard line and one with a set of comparison lines

  -       participants were asked which of the three comparison lines matched the standard line

  -       for the first few trials the Confederates gave the correct answer but then they began to give the same incorrect answer

  -       that was 12 critical trials
• Conclusion

  -       When participants were interviewed afterwards most said that they conformed to avoid rejection this is also known as normative social influence
• Task difficulty variation = the task was made more difficult by using lines that were much closer in length to each other and the comparison line = conformity increased by 33% = confidence it's low with more difficult tasks so you may look to others for answers
• group size variation= the group's majority was increased up to 15 Confederates against one naive participants = conformity increased however a percentage was not recorded = it suggests that the different sizes have some impacts up to N=3
• unanimity variation = the presence of another non conforming person = conformity decreased by 25% = the dissenter supports the naive participant increasing their confidence in the fact that they are correct