Evaluation on Asch's study

• One strength that Asch's research from other studies for the effects of task difficulty.

  • Todd Lucas et al asked their participants 'easy' & 'hard' math problems. Participants were given answers from three other students (confederates). The participants conformed more often when the problems were harder.
  • This shows that Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity.
• Asch's research increased our knowledge of why people conform, including the variables that affect the degree to which people are more likely to conform. This knowledge could help avoid mindless destructive conformity by showing how people can be more independent in their behaviour. The knowledge gained could benefit a huge range and number of people or even society in general. Therefore, the benefits of Asch's study outweigh the ethical costs because the potential practical benefits are great and the stressed caused to participants was minimal.
• One limitation of Ach's study is that the task and the situation were artificial. Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expected. Identifying lines was relatively trivial; therefore, there was no reason to NOT conform.

  In addition, Susan Fiske, said Asch's groups did not really resemble the groups that we experience in everyday life. This means that the findings do not generalise to real-world situations, especially those where the consequences of conformity might be important.
• Another limitation is that Asch's participants were American men. Other research suggests that women may be more conformist, possibly because they are concerned about social-relationships and being accepted. Furthermore, the US is an individualist culture. Similarly, conformity studies are conducted in collectivist cultures, such as China where the social group is more important than the individual. This means that Asch's findings tell us little about conformity in women from some cultures.