Conformity

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.

Question 2

Group size

Answer 2

Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority. Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point, levelling off when the majority was greater than three.

Question 3

Unanimity

Answer 3

The extent to which all members of a group agree. In Asch’s studies, the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line. This produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naïve participants.

Question 4

Task difficulty

Answer 4

Asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes hard harder to work out the correct answer. Conformity increased because naïve participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right. (ISI)

Question 5

Asch’s baseline procedure

Answer 5

• 123 American men
• Standard line vs comparison lines
• 18 trials, 12 critical trials
• Groups of 6-8
• Naïve participant seated second last or last
• 36.8% overall conformity rate
• 25% of participants never gave a wrong answer

Question 6

Evaluation: limitation

Answer 6

• The task and situation were artificial: participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expect (demand characteristics) the task of identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason not to conform. Also, according to Susan Fiske (2014), ‘Asch’s groups were not very groupy’, i.e. They did not really resemble groups that we experienced in everyday life. This means the findings do not generalise to real-world situations, specially those where the consequences of conformity might be important.

Question 7

Evaluation: limitation

Answer 7

Participants were American men: other days that should suggest that woman may be more conformist, possibly because they are concerned about social relationship relationships and being accepted (Neto 1995). Furthermore, the US is an individualist culture. Simile conformity study conducted in collectivist cultures have found that conformity rate is higher.
This means that Asch’s findings tell us a little about conformity in women and people from other cultures.

Question 8

Evaluation: Limitation

Answer 8

Asch’s research increase our knowledge of why people conform, which may help avoid mindless destructive conformity. The naïve participants were deceived because they thought the other people involved in the procedure (the confederates) were also genuine participants like themselves. However, it is worth bearing in mind that this ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study.