Variables affecting conformity as investigated by Asch

Question 1

What did Jennenss study do

Answer 1

Participants had to guess the number of jellybeans in the jar.
They gave their estimates individually.
They then discussed their estimates as a group. After discussion, group estimates were generated.
Finally, they gave a second individual estimate.

Question 2

what did the jelly bean study find

Answer 2

It was found that the second private estimate tended to converge/move towards the group estimate.

Question 3

What did Jenness conclude

Answer 3

Jenness concluded that the judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions, especially in ambiguous or unfamiliar situations.

Question 4

what type of conformity did the participants present in the jelly bean study

Answer 4

The conformity produced was motivated by informational social influence (ISI), where individuals in uncertain situations look to others for guidance as to how to behave.

Question 5

What did Asch argue about the jelly bean study

Answer 5

Asch argued that the study tells us little, if anything, about majority influence (conformity) in non-ambiguous situations.

Question 6

What did the Sheriff study do

Answer 6

The autokinetic effect is where a point of light shone on the wall of a completely dark room appears to move.
Participants were asked to estimate how far the dot of light moved (the effect works differently for everyone).
They then had to confer in groups about their estimates and make a second individual estimate.

Question 7

what did the Sheriff study find

Answer 7

It was found that after the discussion the estimates converged - if one person’s original estimate was very different to the other two group member’s they would ultimately conform to the view of the other two.

Question 8

What was the aim of Asch’s study

Answer 8

To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers

Question 9

what was the procedure of Asch’s study

Answer 9

Sample: 123 American male college students participated in what they were told was a study of visual perception.
6 confederates (stooges – accomplices, working on behalf of the investigator)
7 ‘participants’ sat in a room (6 confederates + 1 naïve participant)
The genuine participant was either last or second to last when giving their answer.
The participants had to call out, in turn, which of the three comparison lines, A, B or C, was the same length as the test line.
Critical trials: where confederates gave unanimous (the same/identical) wrong answers.
There were 12 critical trials (out of 18)

Question 10

what were the findings of Asch’s study

Answer 10

There was a 32% conformity rate to wrong answers on the 12 critical trials (across all participants).
75% of participants conformed to at least one wrong answer (on the critical trials).
25% of participants did not conform at all.
5% of participants conformed to all 12 wrong answers (on the critical trials)

Question 11

what were the conclusions of this study

Answer 11

Even in unambiguous situations, there may be strong group pressure to conform, especially if the group is a unanimous majority.
However, after interviewing his participants, Asch concluded that people go along with the views of others for different reasons:
Some people experience normative social influence and feel compelled to accept the mistaken majority’s norms or standards of behaviour to avoid being rejected.
Others experience informational social influence and doubt their own judgements - ‘surely they can’t all be wrong!’

Question 12

What are the three reasons for conformity in Asch’s study

Answer 12

Distortion of action
Distortion of perception
Distortion of judgement

Question 13

what is distortion of action

Answer 13

Where the majority of participants who conformed did so publicly, but not privately, to avoid ridicule.

Question 14

What is distortion of perception

Answer 14

Where participants believed their perception (of the lines) was wrong and so conformed – they believed the actors’ answers were correct, and were apparently unaware that the majority were giving incorrect answers. “I am wrong, they are right.”

Question 15

What is distortion of judgment

Answer 15

Where some participants had doubts concerning the accuracy of their judgements and lacked confidence, so conformed to the majority view.

Question 16

what are the three variables affecting conformity

Answer 16

Difficulty of task
Group size: size of majority
Unanimity: A non-unanimous majority

Question 17

what is task difficulty

Answer 17

The differences between the comparison line lengths were made much smaller, so they were more similar in length.
The ‘correct’ answer was therefore
less obvious.

Question 18

what is group size

Answer 18

When the size of the majority decreased from 6 confederates down to 1.

Question 19

what is unanimity

Answer 19

When one of the confederates goes against the unanimous majority i.e. fails to give the same answer.

Question 20

what was the level of conformity for task difficulty

Answer 20

Increased from 32%.

Question 21

what was the level of conformity for Group size

Answer 21

When size of the majority increased, so too did conformity – conformity was 13% with two confederates and 32% with three confederates.
However, increasing the number of confederates beyond three had no effect, conformity remained at 32%.

Question 22

what was the level of conformity for unanimity

Answer 22

If one confederate went against the other confederates and gave the correct answer throughout, conformity dropped to 5.5%.
If a ‘rebel’ went against both the other confederates and the real participant, conformity dropped to 9%.

Question 23

Reason for change in level of conformity (Task difficulty)

Answer 23

Informational social influence – individuals look to others for guidance as to what the correct response is.

Question 24

Reason for change in level of conformity (Group Size)

Answer 24

Normative social influence – as the size of the majority increases, there is an increased pressure to be accepted by the group.

Question 25

Reason for change in level of conformity (Unaminity)

Answer 25

Reduction in the majority’s agreement broke the unanimity of the group, so there was less pressure to conform to fit in.
Participants also gained social support – an ally.

Question 26

:( Limitations: Sample, Cultural and Historical Bias

Answer 26

P: However, Asch’s sample was biased, both in terms of gender and culture…
E:…as he only tested American males.
C: This therefore lowers the population validity of his research findings, making it difficult to generalise the findings to females and those from other (collectivist) cultures – research suggests that females conform more readily

Question 27

:(P: Furthermore, Asch’s findings may reflect the time and culture in which it was conducted, as it took place in a period of US history when conformity was high.

Answer 27

E: In 1955, the US was in the grip of McCarthyism, a strong anti-Communist period when people were scared to go against the majority and so were more likely to conform.
C: This therefore lowers the temporal validity of his research findings, because levels of conformity may differ substantially at other points of time.

Question 28

Who replicated Asch’s Study

Answer 28

Perrin and Spencer (1980)

Question 29

what participants did Perrin and Spencer find

Answer 29

replicated Asch’s study in the UK using male students who were drawn from engineering, chemistry and mathematics courses.

Question 30

What did the Perrin and Spencer study find

Answer 30

They found only 1 conforming response out of 396 trials (a conformity level of 0.25%), where a majority unanimously gave the same wrong answer, which would suggest that Asch’s study was a ‘child of its time’ and lacks temporal validity.

Question 31

What could explain why the British students were found to be less conforming in 1980 than their American counterparts?

Answer 31

The male students used were science and engineering students.
Science students are taught to question things and to be independent thinkers, hence they are more likely to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to enable them to resist pressures to conform during a task of this sort.

Question 32

Who conducted a study looking into the role of culture on conformity

Answer 32

Smith and Bond (1998)

Question 33

What did Smith and Bond do

Answer 33

conducted a meta-analysis of 31 studies using Asch’s line task across a number of different cultures.

Question 34

what were the key finings of Smith and Bonds’ study

Answer 34

Key findings:
Conformity was found to be highest in Fiji = 58%
Conformity was lowest in Belgium = 14%
The average conformity rate was 25% for individualist cultures (e.g. Europe and the US), compared to 37% for collectivist cultures (e.g. Africa, Asia, South America).

Question 35

what did smith and bond conclude

Answer 35

People in collectivistic cultures show higher levels of conformity compared with those who live in individualistic cultures.

Question 36

why is conformity higher in collectivist cultures?

Answer 36

In collectivistic cultures, people emphasise loyalty to the group and being concerned about the needs and interests of others. Group decision-making is preferred to individual decisions. In individualistic cultures, people are more concerned with their own and their family’s self-interest and individual initiatives are valued.

Question 37

:( P: Asch’s study could also be criticised for lacking mundane realism.

Answer 37

E: This is because the situation was unrealistic as it is unusual to be in a situation where you might disagree so much with others in terms of what the ‘correct’ answer is. The task was also artificial – it was relatively trivial, therefore there was really no reason not to conform.
C: This reduces the ecological validity of the findings, making it difficult to generalise them to everyday situations. Therefore, it might not tell us much about conformity in real life.

Question 38

:(P: Moreover, Asch’s study was unethical.

Answer 38

E: It involved deceit as participants were told that the study was about visual perception, not conformity. They also thought the other people (confederates) were genuine participants.
It also involved psychological harm - participants were put under stress as they answered either last or second to last and so were faced with the uncomfortable apprehension of disagreeing with the majority.
C: However, arguably it was necessary to deceive participants to reduce the risk of demand characteristics and the stress experienced by the participants was perhaps no greater than that experienced when in a group situation with strangers in everyday life.