Conformity

• Asch's group size study


  • Varied the number of confederates from one to 15 (so the total group size was from two to 16)
  • Found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity rate
  • Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point
  • With three confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%
  • The presence of more confederates made little difference - the conformity rate soon levelled off
• Asch's unanimity study


  • Introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates
  • The genuine participant conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter
  • The conformity rate decreased to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous
  • The presence of a dissenter appeared to free the naive participant to behave more independently
• Asch's task difficulty study

  • Increased the difficulty of the line-judging task by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length
  • Conformity increased
  • The situation may be more ambiguous when the task becomes harder, leading participants to look to others for guidance
• Asch's research investigated the variables that might lead to an increase or a decrease in conformity
• Asch's baseline procedure involved a line-judging task where the answer was certain and unambiguous
• Asch (1951) devised a procedure to assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others, even in a situation where the answer is certain and unambiguous
• The specification focuses on the findings and conclusions from Asch's later research, not the baseline procedure and findings