participants were told that they were taking part in a 'visual perception task'
they were tested with 7-9 participants
participants were shown 2 white cards- the first card showed the standard line and the second card showed 3 comparison line, with 1 being the same length as the standard line
there were 18 trials with 6 being real and 12 being fake
the group was asked what line was the same as or similar to the standard line
there were confederates and 1 real participant
Asch’s sample consisted of 50male students from Swarthmore College in America
he placed on real naïve participants in a room with sevenconfederates (actors), who had agreed their answers in advance
The real participant was deceived and was led to believe that the other seven people were also real participants
The real participant always sat second to last.
In turn, each person had to say out loud which line (A, B or C) was most like the standard line in length.
the correct answer was always obvious
Each participant completed 18trials and the confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12 trials, called critical trials
Asch wanted to see if the real participant would conform to the majority view, even when the answer was clearly incorrect