Conformity- Asch’s Research
Key Terms
Group size- Asch increased the size of the group by adding more
confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority. Conformity
increased with group size, but only up to a point, levelling off when the
majority was greater than three.
Unanimity- The extent to which all the members of a group agree. In
Asch’s studies, the majority was unanimous when all the confederates
selected the same comparison line. This produced the greatest degree of
conformity in the naïve participants.
Task difficulty- Asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes
harder to work out the correct answer. Conformity increases because
naïve participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right.
Asch’s research
Procedure
- The participants were 123 American
male undergraduates.
- Participants were tested individually
and had to identify lines in the same
length along with 6 – 8 other
confederates.
- Each participant took part in 18 trials
and on 12 ‘critical’ trials the
confederates gave the wrong answer.
- 12/16 critical trials.
Findings
- The participant mistakenly agreed with
confederate majority 37% of the time, mostly normative social
influence.
- 25% never conformed.
- 75% conformed at least once.
- Participants conformed to avoid rejection (normative social
influence).
Key Terms
Group size- Asch increased the size of the group by adding more
confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority. Conformity
increased with group size, but only up to a point, levelling off when the
majority was greater than three.
Unanimity- The extent to which all the members of a group agree. In
Asch’s studies, the majority was unanimous when all the confederates
selected the same comparison line. This produced the greatest degree of
conformity in the naïve participants.
Task difficulty- Asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes
harder to work out the correct answer. Conformity increases because
naïve participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right.
Asch’s research
Procedure
- The participants were 123 American
male undergraduates.
- Participants were tested individually
and had to identify lines in the same
length along with 6 – 8 other
confederates.
- Each participant took part in 18 trials
and on 12 ‘critical’ trials the
confederates gave the wrong answer.
- 12/16 critical trials.
Findings
- The participant mistakenly agreed with
confederate majority 37% of the time, mostly normative social
influence.
- 25% never conformed.
- 75% conformed at least once.
- Participants conformed to avoid rejection (normative social
influence).
