Asch and Variables for Conformity

• Variables affecting conformity

  • Group size
  • Unanimity
  • Task difficulty
• Asch 1951

  A classic study of conformity
• Asch wanted to investigate whether people would conform to the majority in situations where an answer was obvious
• Asch's procedure

  1. Participants were tested in groups of 6 to 8

  2. Each group was presented with a standard line and three comparison lines

  3. Participants had to say aloud which comparison line matched the standard line in length

  4. In each group there was only one genuine (naive) participant, the remaining were confederates

  5. The genuine participant was seated second to last and did not know the other participants were fake participants

  6. The fake confederate participants all gave the same incorrect answer

  7. Confederates were told to give the incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trails
• Artificial situation and task

  • Participants may have gone along with what was expected as they knew they were in a research study (Demand Characteristics)
  • The task was trivial and did not impact the participants in their 'real life', which means there was no reason not to conform
  • Findings do not generalise to real-world situations, especially where there could be important consequences to conformity
• Limited application

  • Asch's participants were all men from the USA
  • Women may be more conformist due to their concern with social relationships
  • The USA is an individualist culture, findings tell us little about how women or those from other cultures may conform