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psych paper 1
social influence
asch
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Created by
grace sawtell
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Cards (14)
aim
investigate extent to which
social pressure
from
majority
could affect conformity
method
participants =
123
male
students from
USA
group setting = participant in a group with
6-8
confederates
task =
line
judgement
task
condition = in
12
trials, confederates gave the
incorrect
answer
findings
conformity rate -
32
% gave incorrect answer
no confederates -
99
% gave correct answer
75
% conformed at least once
conclusion
people conform to majority view even when they know it's incorrect
normative
social influence
❌ asch
perrin
&
spencer
in britain, only
1
conformed out of
396
trials
lacks
temporal
validity
what were the 3 variations to asch's study?
group size
unanimity
task difficulty
variation of group size
3
confederates = conformity increased to
32
%
adding more confederates didn't increase conformity
group size of
3-4
confederates is optimal for influencing conformity
variation of unanimity
1
dissenter = conformity dropped to
5.5
%
when majority is not unanimous then conformity decreases
variation of task difficulty
more
difficult
= conformity
increased
informational
social influence increases when individuals are
uncertain
and task is
ambiguous
❌ variation
conformity rose to
32
% with
3
confederates
ceiling
effect as additional pressure didn't increase conformity
lacks
generalisability
❌ asch
line judgement
task
lacks
consequences
of real-life situations
lacks
mundane
realism
❌ asch
deception
necessary to avoid
demand characteristics
caused
psychological
distress
✅ variation
confederate gave correct answer then
5.5
% compared to
9
%
social
support does reduce conformity
real-world
application to work
✅ variation
conformity increased showing
informational
social influence
aligns with
real-world
situations
lacks
ecological
validity