ASCH

• aim - find out how people would behave in unambiguous situations
• 7 male students looked a test card showing one vertical line and another card showing 3 vertical lines of different lengths
• pts had to call out in turn which of the three lines was same as test line, the answer was always obvious
• All pts except one were confederates and the genuine pt called out last but one
• the confederates gave unanimous wrong answers on 12 out of 18 trials
• asch found pts conformed to the unanimous wrong answer on 36% of the critcial trials
• asch found 75% of pts conformed at least once
• asch found 25% never gave wrong answer but they experienced tension and doubt however managed to resist pressure
• asch found in the control condition people made mistakes 1% of the time
• asch found in the interview pts claimed to have seen line identified by majority or could not bear being minority and be ridiculed by group. however most said they felt they must be wrong and so yielded to majority view
• asch concluded even in unambiguous situations there may be strong group pressure to conform especially if the group is a unanimous majority
• asch concluded that people go along with the majority for different reasons i.e. to avoid rejection and because they doubted own judgement
• asch study was ethically unacceptable as pts were deceived because they did not know true aim. To resolve this issue informed consent should be received as pts only gave preceptive consent to what they thought was the aim. however the findings were more valuable to society which outweighs ethical issues as it was no greater than everyday life