variables affecting conformity - asch

• Asch's (1951) aim of the line study


  To investigate the extent to which an individual within a group will conform with the majority opinion.
• Asch (1951) procedure


  Involved groups of 8-10 male college students - only one was an actual participant and all the others were confederates of the experimenter. The task was a line judgement experiment.

  The participants were shown a standard line and three comparison lines and were asked to identify which of the three lines matched the standard line in length.

  Started with six control trials - confederates gave the correct answers.

  Then 12 critical trials - confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer unanimously.
• Asch (1951) findings


  The measure of conformity was how often the real participant conformed to the majority's incorrect answers despite the evidence of their senses.

  75% of participants conformed at least once.

  25% never conformed.

  5% conforming every time.

  The overall conformity rate in the critical trails being around 32%.
• Suggestions from Asch's research


  Suggests that people will conform due to normative social influence; they conform for social approval, avoiding rejection or being seen as an outcast.
• Variables affecting conformity as investigated by Asch

  • Group size
  • Unanimity
  • Task difficulty
• Group size


  Asch varied the number of confederates from 1 to 16.

  With only one confederate, the conformity rate was only 3%.

  With two confederates, the conformity rate slightly increased to 13%.

  With three confederates, the conformity jumped significantly to 33%.

  The conformity rate remained steady after this point with a conformity rate of 31% at 16 confederates.

  Suggests that the presence of a small, unanimous group has a strong social pressure, but beyond a certain point, the group size does not proportionally increase this pressure.
• Unanimity


  A confederate broke the group's unanimity by responding correctly. In this variation, the conformity rate dropped to 5.5%. This suggests the presence of a dissenter provides social support.
• Task difficulty


  Asch repeated the experiment with smaller differences between the line lengths, making the task more ambiguous. In this more difficult condition, the rate of conformity increased. Asch argues this was due to participants being more uncertain about their judgments, making them more susceptible to informational social influence.
• + High internal validity of Asch's study


  E - It was carefully controlled and a standardised procedure was followed, giving each participant precisely the same experience - all participants viewed the same lines in the same order with the same response from the confederates.

  E - This means that the experiment has high internal validity and reduces the chance of any extraneous variables.

  L - However, Asch's task lacks mundane realism (next eval)
• / Asch's task lacks mundane realism


  E - matching the lengths of the lines is a task that is quite simple and was highly controlled.

  E - may help decrease extraneous variables, but does not replicate real life social interactions where conformity may happen.

  L - Therefore, the artificial nature of his study means it's not a valid measure of real-life conformity.
• / Lacks temporal validity 


  E - Perrin and Spencer (1981) argue that in Asch's work, high conformity rates were due to cultural conditions in Cold War 1950s America.

  E - They replicated the study in 1980s with British students and found conformity in only one trial out of 396.

  L - Therefore, this suggests that societal changes might explain lower conformity rates that they observed.
• / Culture and gender bias


  E - In Asch's study, all Ps were male students of around the same age, meaning the study lacks population validity.

  E - Also, Bond (1996) found similar conformist studies conducted in collectivist cultures have found that conformity rates are higher which suggests conformity could be influenced by cultural background.

  L - Therefore, results may only be applicable to one culture and gender which demonstrates beta bias.