asch vs

• Asch's study


  • 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; 1 true pps and 5 confederates
  • Pps and confederates were presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line
  • Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 trials
  • Asch observed how often the pp would give the same incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer
• Group size


  An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group

  conformity rose to 31.8 when there was 3 confederates

  above three and there was no effect
• Unanimity of majority


  An individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous i.e. all give the same answer, as opposed to them all giving different answers

  one confed that agreed with pp increased reduced conformity by 25%
• Task difficulty


  An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult
• Majority size


  The majority must be at least 3 to exert an influence, but an overwhelming majority is not needed in all instances to bring about conformity
• Lack of temporal validity


  a particular period of US history when conformity was more important.

  strong anti-Communist period - people were scared to go against the majority and so more likely to conform.
• youths on probation support


  as participants and probation officers as the confederates, they found similar levels of conforming to those found by Asch back in the 1950s.
• Cultural differences in conformity Smith et al.

  found conformity rates higher in collectivist cultures.
• Perrin & Spencer (1980) - child of time


  found less conformity in UK engineering students compared to Asch's original sample

  1 student conformed 1/396 trials
• Artificial situation

  The situation & task were artificial - participants knew they were in a study so may have just responded to demand characteristics
• Asch findings:



  • Confederates gave the same wrong answer on 12/18 trials.            
  • Findings - conformity rate was approx 33%.                                            
  • Without confederates, participants made mistakes 1% of the time.                    
• Neto - cannot generalise to women


  Women are more conformist
• Williams and Sogon - Findings apply to certain situations


  Conformity may be due to wanting to impress others (strangers)

  whereas conformity with friends is usually higher
• Pros of the study

  laboratory setting = variables were strictly controlled.

  This meant that the experiment could be repeated easily and the influence of extraneous variables (those not being studied) could be minimised.