Conformity - Asch (1951, 1956)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

Asch wanted to examine the extent to which social pressure from a majority, could affect a person to conform. He wanted to investigate how people would behave in an unambiguous situation.

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

• Laboratory experiment.
• 123 American, male, undergraduate students tested.
• Informed they were taking a vision test.
• Asch showed them a series of lines (a standard line and all the possible answers).
• All of the participants were seated in a semi-circle.
• 7-9 confederates.
• All but one were confederates.
• The confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer on 12 critical trials.
• A total of 18 trials held.
• The true participant was always the last or second to last participant.
• They were asked which of the 3 lines was the same length as the test line. Confederates and participants were then asked to respond verbally.

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

• On 32% of the critical trials (those where the confederates gave the same wrong answer), the true participant conformed (gave the same wrong answer).
• 74% of the participants conformed at least once.
• 26% of the participants never conformed at all, however, did report feeling tension and doubt.
• Asch also used a control group, in which one real participant completed the same experiment without any confederates. He found that less than 1% of the participants gave an incorrect answer.
• Asch debriefed participants and identified 3 types of conformity:
  1) Distortion of perception - a few participants reported being unaware their judgements were wrong.
  2) Distortion of judgement - most participants thought their own perception was wrong and so yielded to the majority.
  3) Distortion of action - a few participants knew their perception was accurate but didn’t want to be a minority and so conformed.

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

• The findings demonstrate the power of majority influence. The participants’ behaviour was a case of internalisation for the majority and compliance for a minority.
• People will conform to the majority view, even when the answer was clearly incorrect.
• When being interviewed after the experiment, most of them said that they did not really believe their conforming answers, but had gone with the majority in fear of being ridiculed.

Question 5

Asch (1956) - The Variation

Answer 5

1) Group Size
2) Unanimity
3) Task Difficulty

Question 6

How the size of the majority affects conformity

Answer 6

• These variations ranged from having 1 confederate to 15 confederates, and the level of conformity varied dramatically.
• When there was 1 confederate, the real participants conformed on just 3% of the critical trials.
• When the group size increased to 2 confederates, the real participants conformed on 12.8% of the critical trials.
• When there were 3 confederates, the real participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials, the same percentage as Asch’s original experiment, in which there were 7 confederates.
• Found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity - conformity increased with the presence of more confederates but only to a point.

Question 7

How group agreement in the majority affects conformity

Answer 7

• In one variation of Asch’s experiment, one of the confederates was instructed to give the correct answer throughout. In this variation, the rate of conformity dropped to 5%.
• In Asch’s baseline study, the confederates all gave the same incorrect answer and conformity was 32%.
• In another variation, one of the confederates gave a different incorrect answer to the majority. In this variation, conformity still dropped significantly (by 9%).

Question 8

How making the task harder affects conformity

Answer 8

• In Asch’s baseline, the correct answer was always obvious and conformity was 32%.
• In one of his variations, he made the task more difficult, by making the difference between the line lengths significantly smaller, making the situation more ambiguous. In this variation, Asch found the rate of conformity increased, although he didn’t report the percentage.

Question 9

Strength

Answer 9

A strength of Asch’s study into conformity is that it was carried out in a lab setting and was carefully controlled. This means that there was good control over extraneous variables, therefore any change in results was due to the change in the independent variable and its effect on the dependent variable. The results show a direct cause and effect link and so are ,therefore, reliable.

Question 10

Weakness

Answer 10

• The task was artificial. People do not have to judge lines in everyday life. As the task was trivial there was no real reason not to conform. On a more important task, we would expect conformity to drop. Therefore, it could be argued that Asch’s experiment has low levels of ecological validity. We are unable to generalise the results of the study to real life situations, therefore these results are limited in their application to everyday life.
• The situation was artificial. The participants knew they were in a research study and may have simply gone along with the demands of the situation. This is called demand characteristics. They may have guessed what the experiment requires and just did what they thought the researchers wanted. The fact that they had to say answers aloud is special. Therefore, the study only tells us about conformity in special circumstances. Therefore, the study isn’t measuring what it intended to measure and lacks internal validity.
• Groups weren’t real. Fiske 2014 argues that Asch’s groups were not very ‘groupie’ as they didn’t resemble groups we are parts of in real-life. This is a limitation as it means that the findings are not generalisable to everyday situations. The study therefore lacks external validity.

Question 11

Weakness

Answer 11

• The ppts were male. Some research suggests that females are more conformist, because they may be more concerned about their social relationships and have a greater need to be accepted. As a result, Asch’s sample lacks population validity and further research is needed to determine whether males and females conform differently.
• The ppts were American. The USA is an individualist culture. This is a culture where people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social group. When conformity research has been conducted in collectivist cultures, they have found that conformity rates are higher.
• This may suggest that Asch’s conformity research tells us little about conformity beyond American men, i.e., the findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from collectivist cultures and therefore it has limited applications.

Question 12

Weakness

Answer 12

• Asch’s research has increased our knowledge as to why people conform but ethical issues arise in research where there are conflicting sets of values concerning the goals, procedures or outcomes of a research study.
• Deception: The ppts didn’t know they were being tricked. They didn’t know the real purpose of the study (they were told it was about vision). They also didn’t know that the other people in the room were in on the study, i.e., the confederates. However, deception was necessary because if the ppts had known about the research’s true purpose, it would have been pointless.
• Informed consent: As the ppt didn’t know the real purpose of the research they were not able to give their informed consent. They were not informed about everything the research involved.
• The ethical cost on the participants should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study and it can be argued that due to Asch’s research we have a deeper insight into conformity which can help society avoid mindless destructive conformity in the future. It is also important research is conducted ethically so that reputation of psychology is not damaged.