AO3

• A weakness is contradictory research: Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch’s original study with engineering students in the UK.

  -Only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials. It may be that engineering students felt more confident about measuring lines than the original sample and therefore were less conformist. 

  -suggests experience affects conformity
• Another weakness is that ppts knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with the demands of the situation (demand characteristics).

  -The task of identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason not to conform.

  -Ppts may have also felt more pressure to get the answer right due to the research context, and so were more likely to conform to the group.
• Another weakness is that only men were tested by asch

  -Other research suggests that women may be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships (and being accepted) than men are (Neto, 1995).
• Another weakness is that The men in Asch’s study were from the United States, and individualistic culture

  -Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures (such as China) have found that conformity rates are higher.

  -This makes sense because such cultures are more oriented to group needs (Bond and Smith, 1996). 

  -suggets conformity may be affected by culture
• a strength is There is supporting research for the effects of task difficulty.

  -Lucas et al. (2006) asked their ppts to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems.

  -Ppts were given answers from three other students (that were not actually real).

  -The ppts conformed more often (i.e. agreed with the wrong answers) when the problems were harder.