Asch (1951)

Question 1

Asch aims

Answer 1

• To see if participants would feel pressured into conforming to an obviously wrong answer

Question 2

Asch procedure

Answer 2

• Participants were asked to match one standard line with three possibilities
• Participants in the experimental condition (n=50, male college students) were tested in groups of 7, 8 or 9. All the other members of the group were confederates of the experimenter.
• The confederates were instructed beforehand to give the same wrong answers on certain critical trials.
• The naïve participant was always the last or second to last to answer.

Question 3

Asch results

Answer 3

• 74% of participants conformed at least once
• 32% was the basic conformity rate (total number of trials)
- most that they did not want to appear different or be made to look a fool

Question 4

Asch conclusions

Answer 4

This research is a demonstration of normative social influence. The finding that many did not want to appear different means that they did not internalise the answer, and would have returned to their original belief, so this is an example of compliance.

Question 5

Evaluation point

Answer 5

• Contradictory findings: Perrin & Spencer (1980) replicated Asch’s study on engineering students and did not find support for the conformity effect. As Perrin & Spencer’s study was carried out much later than Asch’s, this might suggest that conformity can be affect by cultural changes over time, so no longer relevant research

Question 6

Evaluation point

Answer 6

Ecological validity: Asch’ study uses a trivial situation, and therefore may overestimate levels of conformity in a real-life environment