Conformity: Asch's research

• Asch's Research- Procedure

  123 male uni students

  Showed ppts 2 cards: standardised line, 3 lines- work out which is standard. Unambiguous- obvious choice.

  6-8 confederates per trial, 12/18 answered wrong. Creates social influence on naïve ppt.

  Recorded how many times each ppt conformed
• Asch's research- Findings

  • gave wrong answer 36.8% of the time
  • 75% conformed at least once
  • when asked: wanted to avoid rejection (NSI)
• Asch's Research- Variations

  1. Group size

  Conformity increased with group size but levelled off when majority was >3

  2. Unanimity

  dissenter reduced conformity

  3. Task difficulty

  more difficult=increased conformity. Ambiguity=ISI
• Asch's research- evaluation

  A child of its time. Repeated 1980 by Perrin and Spencer, UK engineering students. 1/369 conformed. 50s- conformist time in USA, changed since. Research not consistent across situations/time.
• Asch's research- evaluation

  Artificial situation and task- ppts knew they were in a research study so may of shown demand characteristics. Task was trivial, so there was really no reason not to conform. Fiske (2014)- "not very groupy". Findings do not generalise to everyday situations.
• Asch's research- evaluation

  Limited application of findings- only men tested. Neto (1995) women are more conformist (concerned more with social relationships and being accepted). Men were from USA, an individualist culture. Studies found conformity rates in collectivist cultures are higher.