2. Conformity - Asch’s Line Exp

• 1. Conformity - Asch’s Line Exp

  Asch (1951) - Baseline Study:

  • Investigate extent social pressure from majority influences conformity when correct answer unambiguous.
  • 123 American undergrad. males.
  • Volunteer sampling.
  • Tested individually among 7-8 confederates.
  • 12 ’critical trials’, confederates all gave same wrong answer.
• 1a. Conformity - Asch’s Line Exp

  Asch’s (1951) - Baseline Study Results:

  • 37% - ‘naive’ participant gave wrong answer.
  • 25% - not conform at all.
  • 75% - conformed at least once.
  • Most common reason conforming = fear looking peculiar.
  • Asch Effect.
• 2. Conformity - Asch’s Line Exp

  Asch’s Variations:

  Group Size - more important than agreement of group?

  • 3 confederates = conformity rose to 31.8%.
  • Small amount not enough influence, but no need for more than 3.

  Unanimity - presence of another non-conformer affect conformity?

  • Disagreeing confederate = conformity reduced by 1/4.

  Task Difficulty - more difficult by stimulus + comparison being alike.

  • Conformity increased.
  • ISI role when ambiguous.
• Conformity - Asch’s Line Exp (Evaluation)

  Limitation:

  P - artificial task.

  E - knew in study = demand characteristics = lowers internal validity.

  E - task trivial, no reason not to conform.

  L - findings don’t generalise to real-world situations, lack mundane realism.
• Conformity - Asch’s Line Exp (Evaluation)

  Limitation:

  P - American men.

  E - research, women more conformist (Neto, 1995).

  E - USA individualist culture, similar conformity studies in collectivist cultures (e.g. China) = conformity rates higher (Bond + Smith, 1996).

  L - Asch’s findings tell little about conformity in women + diff cultures; lack generalisability.
• Conformity - Asch’s Line Exp (Evaluation)

  Strength:

  P - support for effects of task difficulty.

  E - Lucas et al. (2006), ’easy/hard’ maths.

  E - given answers from others, conformed more when problems harder.

  L - Asch correct claiming task difficulty affecting conformity.
• Conformity - Asch’s Line Exp (Evaluation)

  Limitation:

  P - Lucas et al’s (2006) study found conformity more complex than Asch claims.

  E - high confidence in maths conformed less on hard tasks.

  L - individual-level factor influences conformity by interacting w/ situational variables (e.g. task difficulty).