Asch

Question 1

ASCH: A03 - Lack of mundane relaism

Answer 1

• artificiality of the task and its trivial nature
• Unlikely participants would have felt strongly about the task, judging the length of a line is not emotive issue
• In a real-life situation conforming may involve compromise of the person’s values
  -Someone less likely to conform due to normative pressures in an everyday situation
• Asch may have over-estimated conformity his results are not necessarily generalisable.

Question 2

ASCH: A03 - Useful application and potentially beneficial to society.

Answer 2

• Members of jury may feel pressured to conform through NSI, lead to a miscarriage of justice
  -Knowledge used by the courts to
  make jurors aware of importance of being able to cast vote privately, not say it publicly. Reduce pressure each jury member feels to conform.
  -Result in a fairer verdict.
  HOWEVER Asch’s can also be used in a less positive way:
• AD’s seek to increase revenue, use principles of NSI.
• make customers want to buy their products
• consider this ethically unsound, means SI research is used to manipulate the general public for financial gain.

Question 3

ASCH: A03 - Cultural bias

Answer 3

• Smith & Bond analysed studies using an Asch type procedure
• found collectivist cultures conform more than
  individualist cultures.
• Perrin & Spencer replicated
  Asch’s study on engineering students, did not find
  support for conformity effect.
• cultural dif.
• Asch’s research carried out in individualist culture, expect less conformity due to value placed on independence/ autonomy in culture.
• collectivist culture expect more conformity due to the
  importance on inter-dependence / being part of a
  group.
• Asch’s results may not generalise to non-western cultures.
• Perrin & Spencer finding reflect a lack of temporal validity, carried out nearly thirty after Asch’s.
• conclude that conformity within our own society has diminished over that time.