Variables affecting conformity

• Asch's research

  • Asked participants to say which line matched the standard line closest (A, B or C)
  • 1 participant, 7 confederates
  • Real participants answered second to last
  • There was also a control group
• Findings

  • Control group has an error rate of 0.04%
  • Critical trials- 32% conformity
  • 25% never conformed
  • 5% conformed to all 12 wrong answers
• Reasons for conformity

  1. Distortion of action
  2. Distortion of perception
  3. Distortion of judgement
• Distortion of action- majority of participants conformed publicly, not privately
• Distortion of perception- participants believed their perception must be wrong, so conformed
• Distortion of judgement- participants had doubts concerning the accuracy of their judgements and conformed
• Levels of science

  • Falsifiability
  • Objectivity
  • Reliability
  • Systematic process
• Variables affecting conformity

  1. Group size
  2. Unanimity
  3. Task difficulty
• Unanimity

  • Introduced a confederate who didn't agree with the others
  • Gave right answer/ gave another wrong answer
  • Conformed less than one quarter of what it was previously
  • Behaved more independently
  • Conformity depends on whether the majority is unanimous
• Weaknesses

  • Doesn't account for individual factors- personality affecting conformity
  • Cannot be generalised- only western college aged men
  • Volunteer sampling
• Strengths

  • Concurrent validity- Lucas et al found people conformed in harder situations
  • Reliability
  • Useful- understand political opinions, how power is gained, how a jury makes their decision, etc
• Locus of control

  • Internal- a person's actions are all their doing/ responsibility
  • External- Blame is placed on others
• Western culture- more individualistic, argue there is a bigger internal locus of control
• Men- Evidence suggests that women are more likely to conform than men
• Age- College aged people are seen to be more individualistic, less likely to have their opinions swayed
• Lucas et al (2006)

  • Asked participants to answer easy and hard maths questions
  • Found that people were more likely to conform when the questions were harder
  • ALSO found that conformity is more complex than Asch suggested
  • Individual factors influenced conformity- those who were more confident in their maths skills were less likely to conform