Conformity Flashcards
What is conformity?
Conformity
‘A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result or imagined pressure from a person or group of people’ - Aronson, 2011
Asch’s baseline procedure
Conformity
Asch (1951) devised procedure to asses what extent people will conform to opinion of others, even if answer is certain
123 American men, each in group w/ other apparent ppts
Saw two large cards on each trial
One had line X (standard line)
One had three lines A, B, C (comparison lines)
One comp line always clearly same as X
Each trial ppts said aloud which comparison line was same length as X
Asch - Group size
Conformity
Varied number of confeds from 1-15
Asch found curvilinear relationship between group size & conformity rate
Conformity increased w/ group size but to a point
With 3 confeds, conformity to wrong answer rose to 31.8% but presence of more confeds made little difference - conformity rate soon levelled off
Suggests most people are sensitive to views of others because just 1 or 2 confeds was enough to sway opinion
Asch - Unanimity
Conformity
Asch introduced a confed who disagreed w/ other confeds
In 1 variation, this confed gave correct answer, in other he gave wrong answer
Genuine ppt conformed less often in presence of dissenter
Rate decreased to less than a quater of level it was when majority was unanimous
Presence of dissenter freed the naive ppt to behave more independently
This was true even when dissenter disagreed w/ genuine ppt
Suggests that influence of majority depends to large extent on it being unanimous
And non-conformity is more likely when cracks are percieved in majority’s unanimous view
Asch - Task difficulty
Conformity
He increased difficulty to line-judging task by making stimulus line & comparison lines more similar
This meant it became harder for genuine ppts to see diffs between lines
Asch found conformity increased which may be because situation is more ambiguous when task is harder
In these circumstances, it is natural to look at other people for guidance & to assume that they are right & you are wrong (ISI)
Evaluation - Artifical situation & task
Conformity
Limit - task & situation were artificial
Ppts knew they were in research study & may have gone along with what was expected (demand characteristics)
Task of identifying lines was trivial & there4 there was no reason not to conform
According to Fiske (2014) ‘Asch’s groups were not very groupy’, i.e. they didn’t really resemble groups we experience in everyday life
There4, findings do not generalise to real-world situations, especially those where consequences of conformity may be important
Evaluation - Limited application
Conformity
Limit - All ppts were American men
Research suggest that woman may be more conformist because they are concerned about social relationships & being accepted (Neto 1995)
USA is individualist culture
Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures have found conformity rates are higher (Bond & Smith 1996)
There4, Asch’s findigs tell us little about conformity in women & people from some cultures
Evaluation - Research support
Conformity
Strength - support form other studies for effects of task difficulty
Lucas et al (2006) asked ppts to solve easy & hard maths probs
Ppts were given answers from 3 other students (not actually real)
Ppts conformed more often when probs were harder
There4, Asch was correct in claiming task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity
Evaluation - Research support (Counterpoint)
Conformity
However, Lucas et al’s study found conformity is more complex than Asch suggested
Ppts w/ high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those w/ low confidence
There4, individual-level factor influence conformity by interaction w/ situational variables (task difficulty)
Asch didn’t research roles of individual factors
