Asch's Study

• Aim

  To investigate group pressure in an unambiguous situation
• Method

  Participants were made up of 123 American men. They were asked to match up a line on a card with another amongst 3 comparison lines. Confederates in the groups gave obviously wrong answers
• Results

  In the 12 clinical trials the participants gave wrong answers 36.8% of the time. 75% of the participants conformed at least once
• Conclusion

  Though some resist, the majority of people are greatly influenced by group pressure
• Weakness


  Since the participants completed an artificial task the findings lack validity as they don't reflect real-life situations
• Weakness


  The findings may lack reliability as the American society during the 1950's was more comformist than ever because of McCarthyism