too much supportingresearch and consistency in research for him to be wrong
Asch's Variables
factors that effect conformity
group size
unanimity
Task Difficulty [harder task = more conform (Lucas et al)]
Evaluation
Artificial Situation and Task = not generalisable
Limited Application/gender bias = all men from USA, can't account for women or other cultures
external/ecological validity?
Supporting Research - Eval
Lucas et al - more complex than originally suggested by Asch
3 explanations for conformity
Distortion of perception: A small few subjects actually came to perceive the majority estimates as correct and were completely unaware of their mistake.
Distortion of Judgement: The majority of conforming subjects were aware of their mistake but did not trust their own judgement and instead decided that the majority was correct.
Distortion of action: These subjects were aware of – and trusted – their judgement that the majority was wrong but nevertheless gave the wrong answer so as not to stand out and be different.
