Conformity: Asch's Research

Question 1

Procedure

Answer 1

Confederates gave deliberately wrong answers to see if participants would conform. had to compare two cards with three on the first card and one on the other.

Question 2

Findings

Answer 2

75% of people conformed at least once. Participants claimed to have conformed to avoid rejection.

Question 3

Variations

Answer 3

Asch repeated the study with variations to see if the results would change. These were; group size, Unanimity, and task difficulty.

Question 4

A child of its time

Answer 4

Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated the study and found less conformity. This suggests conformity in society changes through time.

Question 5

Artificial situation

Answer 5

People may have been going along with what they thought was wanted from them.

Question 6

Limited application

Answer 6

Asch only studied on men which means that the data may not be accurate for everyone as women may conform differently.

Question 7

Only applies to certain situations

Answer 7

Because they had to answer out loud and they were all strangers, conformity could have been higher than normal. however Williams and Sogon (1984) found conformity was higher when the group was friends, not strangers.

Question 8

Ethical issues

Answer 8

The participants were lied to because they thought the other people were also participants, not confederates.