conformitiy

• variables investigated by Asch

  group size

  unanimity

  task difficulty
• group size 


  see whether size of a group affects conformity

  conformity increased with size

  with three confederates, conformity increased to 31.8%
• unanimity


  whether the presence of a non-conforming person affects conformity

  conformity decreased when there was a non-conforming person present

  conformity decreased to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous
• task difficulty 


  whether making the task more difficult affected conformity

  Asch made the stimulus line and comparison line similar to each other to confuse the real participant

  conformity increased when the task became harder due to informational social influence
• artificial situation 


  P: limitation - artificial task and situation

  E: the task of identifying lines was trivial so there was no reason to conform

  E: also Asch's groups did not resemble real-life groups

  L: therefore findings do not generalize to real-world situations
• limited application 


  P: limitation - study conducted solely with American men

  E: Asch's study was conducted in America, an individualistic culture (that emphasizes taking care of self)

  E: similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures (emphasize taking care of society) like China showed higher conformity rates

  L: therefore Asch's study does not tell us anything about women and collectivist cultures' conformity rates
• research support 


  P: strength - research support for task difficulty from other studies

  E: The researcher gave participants 'easy' and 'hard' math questions to solve

  E: three confederates gave wrong answers and real participants conformed more when the question was harder

  L: therefore conformity level increases when a task is more difficult
• counterpoint


  P: limitation - conformity more complex than Asch explained

  E: those with high confidence in their math abilities conformed less on harder math questions

  E: suggests individual-level factors can influence conformity by interacting with situational factors

  L: therefore Asch may not be correct as he didn't study these factors