Key study - Asch

• Aim and Procedure

  Aim- to see if PP would give the same wrong answer as the majority, even when the answer was obvious.

  Procedure- PP were told they were taking part in a visual perception study. 123 male undergraduate volunteers were tested. The real PP was placed in a room with 7 confederates and the PP believed the confederates were PP's. They were asked to look at 3 different lines and they took it in turns calling out which one they think is the line that matches the standard line. On 12 out of 18 critical trails the confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer.
• Conformity rate


  33% of critical trails conformed and gave same wrong answers as the group
• Findings

  • 25% never conformed to any of the 12 critical trials
  • 1 in 20 conformed on all 12 critical trials
• Evaluation

  The research was a child of its time which means it took place in a particular time in history when conformity was important. Low temporal validity.

  Spenser and Perrin replicated the study and 1 out of 386 conformed which furthermore suggests Asch's research is a child of it's time and makes Asch's findings lack validity.

  The study cannot be generalised to older people or women, which means its a bias sample (male participants) leads to androcentrism.

  There were ethical issues: right to withdraw, as participants may have felt obliged to stay and finish the study.