Social Influence

• What was the aim of Asch's study?

  To investigate conformity to group pressure
• How many American male students participated in Asch's conformity study?

  123
• In Asch's experiment, how many confederates were in each group?

  Six to eight
• What did participants in Asch's study have to do?

  Select the matching line
• In Asch's study, how many trials were there?

  18
• How many critical trials were there in Asch's experiment?

  12
• What happened on the critical trials in Asch's study?

  Confederates selected the wrong line
• What proportion of the time did participants give the wrong answer on critical trials in Asch's study?

  1/3
• What percentage of participants never gave a wrong answer in Asch's study?

  25%
• What does Asch's study suggest about people and group pressure?

  People are influenced by group pressure
• What does Asch's study also demonstrate about the participants?

  A high level of independence
• Why might Asch's study only reflect conformity in 1950s America?

  Due to specific cultural and societal norms
• What did Perrin and Spencer find when they repeated Asch's study in the UK in 1980?

  One conforming response in 396 trials
• What does Perrin and Spencer's study suggest about the Asch effect?

  It is not consistent over time
• Why is the artificial nature of Asch's task a weakness?

  It may not reflect real-world situations
• Why might Asch's results not explain serious real-world situations?

  Because the task was trivial
• How does culture affect conformity rates, according to Bond and Smith?

  Collectivist cultures have higher rates
• What does Bond and Smith's research suggest about generalizing Asch's results?

  They cannot be generalized to collectivist cultures
• In social psychology, what does the term 'social' refer to?

  Other people
• Why does conformity occur, according to social psychology?

  Due to pressure from others
• How does group size influence conformity?

  Greater size increases pressure
• What conformity rate did Asch find with three confederates?

  31.8%
• What is the effect of adding confederates beyond three, according to Asch?

  Little difference
• What conformity rate did Asch find with two confederates?

  13.6%
• When does group size have the biggest effect on conformity?

  When there is no obvious answer
• How does anonymity affect conformity?

  It lowers conformity
• How do friends expressing opinions anonymously affect conformity?

  They conform more
• How does task difficulty influence conformity?

  Increased difficulty increases conformity
• How does expertise affect conformity?

  More expertise, less conformity
• What are dispositional factors?

  Characteristics of a person
• How does internal locus of control relate to conformity?

  Leads to lower conformity
• What did Burger and Cooper find about participants with a high desire for control?

  Less likely to agree with confederates
• When is control less important, according to Rotter?

  In familiar situations
• How does knowledgeability relate to conformity?

  More knowledgeable, less conformist
• What did Lucas et al. find regarding maths experts and conformity?

  Less likely to conform
• Why is there no single factor to explain conformity?

  Multiple factors interact
• What was the aim of Milgram's obedience study?

  To see if people would obey
• How many male participants volunteered for Milgram's study?

  40
• What roles were assigned to participants in Milgram's study?

  'Teacher' and 'learner'
• What were teachers instructed to do in Milgram's study?

  Give electric shocks