Conformity

• Asch: Base line study 1951


  Varibles that changed:

  1. Group size.

  Wanted to see whether group size had an impact on conformity rates.

  The number of confederates increased from 1-15

  Total group size ranged from 2-16

  Found a curvillian relaitionship between group size and conformity rates.

  Conformity increased when there was 2-3 confederates increased to 31.8 any more conformity levelled off.

  Shows that most people are influenced by others opinions as 2-3 was enough to sway the opinion.
• Asch: Base line study 1951



  Variables changed:

  2. Unanamity

  wanted to see if the presnense of a non confederate would affect the naive pp's conformity rates.

  In one variation they would give the correct answer

  In another they gave the wrong answer

  Conformity decreased often in the present of a deserter.

  Decreased a quarter from when the group was unanimous.
• Tak difficulty:


  • Increased the difficulty of the line-judging task by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar to each other in length
  • Meant it became harder for the genuine pp to see the differences between the lines
  • found that conformity increased
  • It may be that the situation is more ambiguous when the task becomes harder - it is unclear to the pp what the right answer is. In these circumstances, it is natural to look to other people for guidance and to assume that they are right and you are wrong (informational social influence)