Social Influence Flashcards
Conformity in ambiguous situations
Asch (1956)
123 American males. Volunteers
Told them he’s studying visual perception
1 participant, 5 confederates
Had to match a line to another.
18 trial and 12 were critical.
Findings; 37% conformed on critical trials.
1)distortion of perception 2)distortion of judgement 3)distortion of action
In a group situation, tendency to conform to the behaviours of others (tendency to comply)
Asch evaluation
Methodological
W-gender bias
W-lacks ecological validity
S-ease of replication
W-lacks mundane realism
S-well controlled
Ethical
W-deception
W-protection from harm
Normative social influence- we want to fit in (compliance)
When an individual outwardly goes along but privately disagrees.
Evaluation
S-asch found in a group people conform even when behaviour is incorrect, because they want to be accepted.
W- cannot really explain why we sometimes conform to minorities.
Informational social influence- we want to be correct (internalisation) leads to a permanent change in behaviour.
Evaluation
S- asch found participants wanted to be right and doubted their own judgement.
Facotors effecting conformity levels
Increasing;
-when there’s 3-5 confederates=when the group had 3 confederates and the participant conformity rose to 33% it didn’t rise much more.
- When the ambiguity of the task is increased = when task difficulty increased, conformity increased.
- being from a collectivist culture = conformity higher in collectivist cultures, 1980 research from japan and Fiji found conformity levels of 51% and 50% respectively.
Decrease
-when there is only 2 or 2 confederates = 2 confederates conformity dropped to 13% and dropped again to 3% when only 1 confederate.
- a non-unanimous majority = conformity levels dropped to 5% when the participant had one supportive confederate who did not conform and gave correct answer.
- being from an individualistic culture = lower in individualistic culture, us conformity levels were 37% and in Belgium it was 14%
