Asch-conformity

avatar
Created by
Elle Roberts

Cards (5)

  • Aim
    investigate how people respond to group pressure
  • Method
    123 American male students = naive participants as they didn't know the aims of the study
    confederates employed by researcher
    naive participant in a group of 6-8 confederates
    shown 2 cards 1 with a standard line and one with 3 comparison lines
    on each trial they had to say whether A, B or C matched the standard line
    18 trials in total
    first few trials confederates gave correct answer
    on 12 critical trials confederates gave the wrong answers
  • Results
    on 12 critical trials = naive participants gave wrong answer 36.8% of time
    25% of participants never gave wrong answer
    75% conformed at least once
  • Conclusion
    people are influenced by group pressure even when there is a clear answer = Asch effect
    show high level of independence as majority went against group opinion so they can resist group pressure
  • weakness
    -gender bias
    only tested males, can't be generalised to women
    -country bias
    only tested Americans, can't be generalised to the wider population
    -low mundane realism
    task was artificial as its unusual to be asked to judge a length of a line with a group of strangers in everyday life