Asch

• Solomon Asch (1951, 1955) tested conformity by showing participants two large white cards at a time. On one card was a 'standard line' and on the other card there were three 'comparison lines'. One of the three lines matched the standard, whereas the other two lines were always substantially different. The participant was asked which of the three lines matched the standard.
• The participants in Asch's study were 123 male American undergraduates. Each naive participant was tested individually with a group of six to eight confederates. The naive participant was not aware that the others were confederates.
• On the first few trials, the confederates gave the right answers, but then they started making errors. All of them were instructed to give the same wrong answer.

  Altogether, each participant took part in 18 trials, 12 of which were 'critical trials' where the confederates gave wrong answers.
• Confederates are research actors employed to secretly participate along with actual subjects.
• A trial is one occasion identifying the length of a standard line (one event).
• Asch found the naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time.

  Overall, 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials, which means that 75% conformed at least once.

  The term 'Asch Effect' has been used to describe this result (the extent to which participants conform even when the situation in unambiguous).
• In Asch’s experiment, the majority of people conformed because they wanted to be seen as agreeable and cooperative members of society. They didn’t want to appear stupid or disagreeable so they went along with what everyone else said.
• Asch was especially interested in how upset the participants were, whether they conformed or not, about their personal view of reality and how it appeared to be much different to everybody else's.
• When participants were interviewed after the experiment, most said that they conformed to avoid rejection (normative social influence).
• In the control group, with no pressure to conform, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.
• Why did the majority of Asch's naive participants conform?

  They wanted to avoid rejection from the social group (normative social influence).
• 𝘼𝙎𝘾𝙃'𝙎 𝙑𝘼𝙍𝙄𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎:

  • Group size
  • Task difficulty
  • Unanimity
• 𝟭. 𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗣 𝗦𝗜𝗭𝗘:

  Asch wanted to know if the size of the group would be more important to the agreement of the group.

  He found that with 3 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%.

  However, the addition of more confederates after three made little difference.

  This suggests that a small majority (>3) is not sufficient for influence to be exerted, but at the other extreme, there is no need for a majority of 3<.
• Unanimity is the extent to which all members of a majority agree with each other.
• To dissent is to hold a differing opinion and therefore not conform.
• 𝟮. 𝗨𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗬:

  Asch wanted to test if the presence of a non-conforming person would affect the naive participant's conformity. He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the others, sometimes giving the correct answer and sometimes the wrong one.

  The presence of a dissenting confederate meant that conformity was reduced to 9% when he gave an incorrect answer and 5.5% when he gave the correct answer.

  This partnership variation shows that the power of the group came from the unanimity of the confederates. When that unanimity was punctured the group's power was greatly reduced.
• 𝟯. 𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗞 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗬:

  Asch made the task more difficult by making all lines similar in length. Conformity increased, suggesting that ISI plays a greater role in conformity when the trial is more difficult/the answer is more ambiguous.

  Lucas et al. (2016) conducted an experiment in which participants had to solve easy and hard math problems. They were given the answers of 3 confederates, and conformity increased as the problems became more difficult.

  Participants with a high self-efficacy in their abilities conformed less; there are individual-level factors affecting conformity.
• 𝙀𝙑𝘼𝙇𝙐𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎:

  • Consistency (Perrin and Spence, 1980)
  • Artificiality (Fiske, 2014)
  • Limited application of findings
  • Ethicality (Back et al. 1963)
• 𝟭. 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗬: (𝗟)

  Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch's experiment with British engineering students. Only one student conformed in 396 trials.

  It is possible that the 1950s were an especially conformist time in America and so it made sense to conform to established social norms.

  This suggests Asch's experiment is inconsistent across all situations, times, and places. Therefore, it is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour.

  Asch's study is referred to as a 'child of its time'.
• 𝟮. 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬: (𝗟)

  The participants knew they were in a research study and may have simply gone along with the demand characteristics of the situation.

  Although the naive participants were members of a group, it didn't resemble the social groups they were part of in casual daily life. Fiske (2014) said, "Asch's groups were not very groupy".

  The task of judging line lengths is not something we are often faced with in our everyday lives. Therefore, the study has low ecological validity and the results cannot be generalised to other real-life situations of conformity.
• 𝟯. 𝗟𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦: (𝗟)

  Asch only tested men; later research found that women conformed more often, possibly because they are more concerned of social acceptance than men.

  The men in Asch's study were from America, an individualist culture, whereas similar studies conducted in collectivist cultures (e.g. China) found conformity rates to be higher.

  This limits the relevance of Asch's study because he didn't take into account gender or culture and their respective influences. It also lacks age relevance, so has very little population validity.
• 𝟰. 𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬: (𝗟)

  Participants were not protected from the psychological stress of disagreeing with the majority.

  Evidence obtained by Back et al. (1963) suggested that Asch's experiments were highly emotional situations and participants often had greatly increased levels of autonomic arousal.

  This finding also suggested they were in a conflict situation, experiencing difficulties in deciding whether to conform or not.

  Asch also deceived the students by telling them they were taking part in a vision test. However, deception was necessary to produce valid results.
• Demand characteristics are cues that might indicate the aim of a study to participants, who may then change their behaviours/responses based on what they think the research is about.
• An individualist culture is one where people tend to value independence, self-reliance, and personal goals over group cohesion.
• A collectivist culture prioritises the community over individuals, with traits such as interdependence, harmony, and conflict avoidance.
• Autonomic arousal is a component of the peripheral nervous system that regulates involuntary physical processes. When increased to high levels, it may give symptoms of an accelerated heart rate, sweating, trembling, and shaking.
• 𝘼𝙎𝘾𝙃:

  Despite an obvious answer, Asch found many participants conformed to the incorrect majority answer.

  Even though participants knew the group’s choice was incorrect, they conformed to avoid the discomfort of disagreeing with the group or standing out.

  This study demonstrated the power of normative influence, as individuals were willing to contradict their senses to conform to the group.
• Asch's variations of the line judgement task include group size, unanimity, and task difficulty
• Group Size:

  • Conformity reaches its highest level with just three confederates
  • When there was one confederate, real participants conformed on just 3% of the critical trials
  • When the group size increased to two confederates, real participants conformed on 12.8% of the critical trials
  • When there were three confederates, real participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials
  • In one condition with 15 confederates, the rate of conformity slightly dropped
• Unanimity:

  • If one confederate gives the correct answer, the rate of conformity drops to 5%
  • If one confederate gives a different incorrect answer, conformity drops to 9%
• Task Difficulty:

  • Asch found that the rate of conformity increased when the task was made more difficult
  • This is likely due to informational social influence, as individuals look to others for guidance