CONFORMITY

• ASCH (1951) BASELINE PROCEDURE

  Aims = measure the extent to which people conformed to the opinions

  Findings =

  • Naive participant conformed 36.8% of the time. This shows a high level of conformity when the situation is unambiguous.
  • Individual differences, 25% never conformed 
  • 75% conformed at least once 
  • He then conducted further studies where he showed that certain variables lead to less or more conformity:
• Variable 1 = GROUP SIZE 


  Procedure = varied the number of confederates in each procedure between 1 - 15 (total group size between 2 - 16) 

  Findings = the relationship between group size and level of conformity was curvilinear. 

  If there were 2 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6%. When there were 3 confederates, conformity was 31.8%.

  Explanation = people very sensitive to opinions of other people because just 1 confederate was enough to sway opinion. 
• Variable 2 = UNAMINITY


  Procedure = ASCH introduced a dissenting confederate - sometimes they gave the correct answer or wrong answer (but always disagreed with the majority) 

  Findings = in the presence of a dissenter, conformity reduced on average to less than ¼ of the level it was when the majority was unanimous. 

  Explanation = having a dissenter enabled the naive participants to behave more independently. 
• Variable 3 = TASK DIFFICULTY


  Procedure = ASCH made the line-judging task harder by making the stimulus line and comparison lines more similar in length. Thus it was difficult to see differences between the lines. 

  Findings = conformity increased. 

  Explanation = the situation is more ambiguous, so we are more likely to look to others for guidance and to assume they are right or wrong. Informational social influence.