studies of conformity

• aim of Asch's study

  to see if the real participant would conform to the majority view
• how many people participated in Asch's study?

  123 male university students
• procedure of Asch's study

  a naive participant in a room with 7 confederates who had agreed answers prior.

  each person had to say which comparison line was most like the original.

  out of 18 trials, confederates gave the wrong answer 12 times
• findings of Asch's study

  naive participant gave wrong answer 36.8% of the time.

  25% didn't conform at all
• conclusion of Asch's study

  most conformed but did not believe in their conforming answers (NSI) and went along in fear of being ridiculed

  although some really did believe the group was correct (ISI)
• why was zimbardos study so influential?

  he asked what causes people to do evil things

  dispositional or situational
• what was the aim of the Stanford prison experiment?

  to see whether people will conform to new social roles
• procedure of zimbardos experiment

  some prisoners and some guards, randomly allocated roles

  prisoners put in cells with uniforms and referred to by a number

  guards had to keep prisoners under control
• how long did the Stanford prison experiment last?

  6 days
• results of zimbardo

  2 prisoners had mental breakdowns

  prisoners did not stand up to the guards
• conclusions of zimbardo

  participants conformed to social roles.

  deindividuation - may have lost their sense of identity due to uniforms
• deindividuation

  state when you become so immersed in the norms of the group that you lose your sense of identity and personal responsibility