ASCH’S STUDY 2

Question 1

When was Asch’s study conducted?

Answer 1

1951

Question 2

What did Asch’s procedure test?

Answer 2

Assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others, even in a situation where the answer is certain

Question 3

Asch’s baseline procedure:

Answer 3

• 123 American males were tested, each one in a group with other apparent participants
• on each trial, participants had to say (out loud) which of the comparison lines was the same length as standard line X
• participants were tested in groups of 6 to 8 (only one was a genuine participant, the rest were confederates)
• confederates were given incorrect, scripted answers to say each time
• found that on average the genuine participants agreed with the confederates wrong answers 36.8% of the time
• there were individual differences, 25% of the participants never gave a wrong answer

Question 4

Variables investigated by Asch:

Answer 4

• group size
• unanimity
• task difficulty

Question 5

Group size variable:

Answer 5

• to test whether the size of teh group would be more important than the agreement of the group, he varied the number of confederates from 1-15 (so the total group size was from 2-16)
• Asch found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity rate but only up to a point
• with 3 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%
• the presence of more confederates meant that the conformity rate soon levelled off
• suggests that oriole are very sensitive to the views of others because just one or two confederates was enough to sway an opinion

Question 6

Unanimity variable:

Answer 6

• tested whether the presence of a non-conforming person would affect the naive participants conformity
• introduced a confederate which disagreed with the other confederates
• in one variation, he gave the correct answer and in another, he gave the wrong answer
• the genuine participant conformed less in the presence of a dissenter
• the rate of conformity decreased to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous

Question 7

Task difficulty variable:

Answer 7

• wanted to know whether making the task harder would affect the degree of conformity
• increased the difficulty of the line judging task by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar to eachother in length
• harder for the genuine participant to distinguish between the lines
• conformity increased
• situation is more ambiguous when it is harder
• unclear to the participants what teh right and wrong answer
• ISI