Factors Affecting Conformity - Asch

Question 1

Size of Majority

Answer 1

• when there was 1 confederate and 1 real participant conformity rates were 3%.
• when there was 2 confederates and 1 real participant conformity rates were 13%
• when there was 3 confederates and 1 real participant conformity rates were 33%.

Question 2

Unanimity

Answer 2

• a confederate was place before a real participant and said the right answer on the critical trials and conformity rates dropped to 5.5%.
• this happened because when the dissenter supports the participant, it makes the participant feel more confident.
• this also happened because the dissenter broke the united front of the rest of the group.

Question 3

Task Difficulty

Answer 3

• difficulty of tasks affects conformity because when we are presented with a difficult task our confidence tends to drop.
• Asch manipulated his original study and made the task ambiguous and found that conformity increased.