Asch’s study

• Research


  Trying to find data to support a theory
• Asch (1956) study


  • Aim: Wanted to investigate the effect that a majority would have if the test was very obvious and unambiguous
  • Used 123 male American undergraduate students
  • Participants were placed at the end of the second to last row
  • Confederates gave the correct answer 6 times and the incorrect answer 12 times (total 18 trials)
• Asch (1956) experiment procedure


  1. Participants took turns joining a group of confederates to take part in the task

  2. The real (naive) participant didn't know the rest were confederates

  3. There were between 7 and 9 people in a group

  4. Used two sets of cards - one with a standard line and the other with three comparison lines
• This study supports that when people are in a group situation, they are likely to conform to the majority
• Participants said they conformed because they did not want to be rejected by the group
• Factors affecting conformity


  • Smaller group size (12 people) leads to less conformity
  • Larger group size (3 people) leads to more conformity
  • Presence of a non-conformer reduces conformity
  • Presence of a confederate who gives the "correct" answer once reduces conformity
• As group size increases


  Conformity increases substantially, but then begins to plateau
• What were Asch’s findings ? 


  37% of answers given by ppt were incorrect

  25% of ppt never confirmed

  75% conformed once

  5% conformed on every critical trial
• Asch's study and external validity

  • May lack external validity as it is out of date
  • Findings may be unique to a particular period of US history when conformity was high due to anti-communism (McCarthyism) and were scared to go against majority therefor can be said to lack temporal validity as society today celebrates being an individual and not a follower.
• Replication of Asch's study

  • Perrin & Spencer (1980) with engineering students - only 1 out of 396 conformed- however students might have felt more confident as they measure lines everyday
• Asch's study was an artificial situation and task
• Participants in Asch's study

  • Knew they were in a research study and may have conformed due to demand characteristics
  • The task was not very important, so there was little reason not to conform
  • The confederates were not trained actors, so participants may have realised the true nature of the study and just pretended to conform
• Asch's study may have measured demand characteristics rather than conformity. This is because the task was trivial and had no reason to conform. this can lead to lower internal validity as he was not measuring what he intended to measure.
• Ethical issues with Asch's study

  • Participants were deceived as they did not know the other participants were confederates
  • Participants were told it was a vision test when it was actually a test of majority influence
  • The study could have caused stress and embarrassment for participants
• Without deception, studies like Asch's cannot take place
• It is unlikely the study caused long-term psychological damage to participants
• Can only be applied in certain situations

  According to William and Sogon, Conformity was higher when the majority were friends rather than strangers. People may be more concerned about rejection from friends than strangers - you might want to avoid long term awkwardness + some people have a “I’ll never see them again mindset“