Conformity:Asch

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

What did Asch (1951) devise a procedure to assess?

Answer 2

• to assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others even in a situation where the answer is certain (unambiguous)

Question 3

What was Asch’s baseline procedure?

Answer 3

• 123 American men were tested
• each p saw two large white cards of a standard line X on one card & the lines A,B,C on the other card as comparison lines
• one of the lines are always clearly the same length as X & other 2 are substantially different
• each trial p’s had to say out loud which of the comparison lines was the same length as line X

Question 4

How were the participants tested in his baseline procedure?

Answer 4

• in groups of 6 to 8
• only one was a naïve participant & was always seated last or next to the last
• others were all confederates (gave all the incorrect scripted answer)

Question 5

What was Asch’s baseline findings?

Answer 5

• on average, the genuine p’s agreed with confederates incorrect answers 36.8% of the time
• 25% of p’s never conformed

Question 6

What 3 variables did Asch investigate that might lead to an increase or decrease in conformity (1955) ?

Answer 6

• group size
• Unanimity
• Task difficulty

Question 7

What did Asch do in the group size variable?

Answer 7

• increased the size of the group by adding more confederates (total group size was 2-16)

Question 8

What was Asch’s findings & conclusions from the group size variable?

Answer 8

• found a curvilinear relationship between group size & conformity rate> conformity increased with group size but only up to a point
• 3 confederates= conformity to wrong answer rose to 31.8%
• suggest people are very sensitive to the views of others as one or two confederates was enough to way opinion

Question 9

What did Asch do in the unanimity study?

Answer 9

• refers to the extent to which all members of a group agree
• Asch introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates e.g. they gave the correct answer, in another they gave a different wrong answer)

Question 10

What was Asch’s findings and conclusions from the unanimity variable?

Answer 10

• genuine p conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter
• rate decreased to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous
• suggests that the influence of the majority depends to a large extent on it being unanimous
• non-conformity is more likely when cracks are perceived in the majority’s unanimous view

Question 11

What did Asch do in the task difficulty study?

Answer 11

• Ash increased the difficulty of the line judging task by making the stimulus line & comparison line more similar in length to see if this would affect degree of conformity
• became harder for the genuine p’s to see the difference between the lines

Question 12

What was Asch’s findings and conclusions from the
task difficulty variable?

Answer 12

• found that conformity increased
• may be that the situation is more ambiguous when the task becomes harder> unclear what the right answer is
• look to others for guidance as they assume they are right (ISI)

Question 13

What is a limitation of Asch’s research?

Answer 13

• task and situation were artificial
• p’s knew they were in a research study & may simply have gone along with what was expected (demand characteristics)
• task of identifying lines was relatively trivial & therefore there was really no reason not to conform
• findings don’t generalise to real- world situations, especially those where the consequences of conformity might be important

Question 14

What is another limitation of Asch’s research?

Answer 14

• Asch’s p’s were all American men
• other research suggests women may be more conformist because they are more concerned about social relationships & being accepted
• US is also an individualistic culture > Bond & Smith have found conformity rates are higher in collectivist cultures
• means Asch’s findings tell us little about conformity in women & people from other cultures = reduced validity

Question 15

What is a strength of Asch research?

Answer 15

• support from other studies for the effects of task difficulty
• Lucas et al asked p’s to solve ‘easy’ & ‘hard’ maths problems
• p’s were given answers from three other students (not real answers)
• p’s conformed (to wrong answers) more often when the problems were harder
• shows Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity

Question 16

What is counterpoint to research supporting task difficulty?

Answer 16

• found conformity is more complex than Asch suggested
• p’s with high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence
• shows and individual-level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables
• Asch research does not account for individual factors=limited