AO3

• Asch's research may a child of its time—they took place in a period of history when conformity was high (US in 1956 = strong anti-communist period—McCarthyism)
• People were afraid to go against the majority and so more likely to conform
• Sample bias


  • The study was done on only male American undergraduates and so the results cannot be generalizable to the rest of the population
• Cultural differences in conformity— Smith et al. (2006) analysed the results of an Asch-type study across a number of different cultures. The average conformity rate was 31.2%
• Collectivist cultures


  Higher levels of conformity arises because it is viewed more favourably as a form of 'social glue' that binds communities together
• Unconvincing confederates— it may have been difficult for the confederates to act convincingly when giving the wrong answer which would affect the validity of the study
• Morai and Arai (2010) overcame this problem by using polarized lenses, and the results from their study suggested that Asch's confederates had acted convincingly
• Ethical issues – deception, lack of informed consent, protection from harm