Social Influence : Conformity Flashcards
(23 cards)
Definition of ‘conformity’
A change in a persons behaviour or options as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
What was Asch aim
Assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others, even in a situation where the answer is certain
What year did asch carry out his procedure
1951
What was asch baseline study
The one against which all the later studies are compared to
- group size
-unanimity
-task difficulty
What variables were investigated by asch
- task difficulty
- group size
- unanimity
Explain group size
He varied 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
Conformity increased with group size but only up until a certain point
With 3 CONFEDERATES conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8 %
But the presence of more confederates made little difference - levelled off
What did asch findings about group size suggest
That people are very sensitive to the views of others because just one or two confederates was enough to sway an opinion
Explain unanimity
Asch wondered if the presence of a non conforming person would affect the naive participants conformity
He introduced a confederate who DISAGREED with the other confederates
In one variation of the study, this person gave the correct answer and in one other he gave the wrong answer
THE GENUINE PARTICIPANTS CONFORMED LESS OFTEN IN THE PRESENCE OF A DISSENTER
What did asch findings with unanimity
The conformity rate decreased to less than 1/4 of the level when the majority was unanimous
The prescience of a dissenter appeared the free the naive participant to behave more independently
This was true even when the dissenter agreed with the participant
What does unanimity suggest
The influence of a majority depends to a large extent on it being unanimous
Non-conformity is more likely when cracks are perceived in the majority’s unanimous veiw
What is task difficulty
Asch wanted to know whether making the task harder would affect the degree of conformity
He increased the difficulty of the line judging task by making the stimulus line and comparison lines more similar to each other in length
This mean it became harder for the genuine participants to see the difference between the two lines
What did asch findings with task difficulty
Conformity increased
Situation is more ambiguous as task is harder
Unclear to participants what the right answer is
Natural to look for others for guidance and ton assume that they are right and you are wrong
Normative social influence
Limitation of asch research
The task and situation were artificial
Participants knew they were in a research study and so may have simply have gone along with what was expected
Demand characteristics
The task of identifying lines was very TRIVIAL and therefore there was no real reason not to conform
Asch groups were not very ‘groupy’ according to SUSAN FISKE (2014) - they did not really resemble groups in real day life
This suggests that the findings do not really GENERALISE to real-world situations especially those where the consequences of conformity might be important.
Limitation of asch research
Limited application - Participants were all American men
Other research suggests women may be more CONFORMIST possible because they are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted (Neto 1995)
FURTHERMORE the US is an individualist culture (where people are concerned more about themselves rather than their social group)
Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures such as china where the social group is more important than the individual have found that conformity rates are higher
This means that ASCH findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from some cultures
Strength of asch research
Research support- research from other studies for the effects of task difficulty
Todd Lucas (2006) asked their participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems
Participants were given answers from three other students (confederates)
The participants conformed more often when the problems were harder
This shows Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one of the variables that affect conformity
Counter point of research support (Todd Lucas)
However Lucas study found that conformity is more complex than asch suggested
Participants with high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on harder tasks than those with low confidence
This shows that an INDIVIDUAL LEVEL FACTOR can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables.
But asch did jot research the roles into individual factors
~ MATCHED PAIRS DESIGN
Extra evaluation
Asch research increased our knowledge of why people conform with may help avoid mindless destructive conformity
The naive participants were deceived because they thought other people were involved in the procedure (confederates) were also genuine participants like themselves
However this ethical cost should weigh up against the benefits gained from the study
Who were asch participants
123 American men
How were the participants arranged in the procedure
Participants tested in groups of 6-8
Only one was a genuine participant
Always seated last or second to last
All others were confederates who gave the same incorrect answers every time
Genuine participants did not know other participants were fake
What were the baseline findings
On average, genuine participants agreed with confederates incorrect answers 36.8 % of the time (1/3)
There were individual differences - 25% of participants never gave a wrong answer
