Variables Affecting Conformity

Question 1

Asch line study - procedure

Answer 1

• 123 male American ppts
• 1 naive ppt to 6-8 confederates
• 18 trials in total, 12 critical
• Used a control group - 36 ppts completed 20 trials individually which had less than 1% mistakes
• Used a line judgement task where out of options A, B, C, you had to find the line which was equal to the target line.
• Obvious answer unlike Jenness.

Question 2

Asch findings

Answer 2

75% conformed at least once
5% conformed in all 12 critical trials
37% conformity rate overall

Question 3

Asch interview findings

Answer 3

Normative Social Influence as a result of.
Did not wanted to be ridiculed.
May be a distortion of judgement, action or perception.

Question 4

Jenness - Procedure

Answer 4

• An ambiguous situation
• 26 students who individually how many beans in a glass bottle container
• Participants divided into groups of three
• They were asked to provide a group estimate discussion
• They were given the opportunity to change their estimate of the beans individually

Question 5

Jenness - findings

Answer 5

• Nearly all participants changed their original answer when they were provided with another opportunity to estimate the number
• 75% decrease.

Question 6

Why did the participants conform in Asch’s study?

Answer 6

Distortion of perception
Distortion of judgement
Distortion of action

Question 7

What is distortion of perception?

Answer 7

A small number of participants came to see the lines in the same way as the majority

Question 8

What is distortion of judgement?

Answer 8

They were doubtful/unsure of their own judgement

Question 9

Distortion of action

Answer 9

Most participants continued to privately think differently from the group, but changed their public answer to avoid disapproval.

Question 10

The difficulty of the task

Answer 10

When the difficulty of the task is increased such as the lines being made to look more similar, the conformity increases. This supports ISI.

Question 11

Unanimity of the majority

Answer 11

Originally all confederates gave the wrong answer. A dissenter was used to say the right answer. Conformity dropped to just 5%. Therefore, unanimity is a strong factor in creating group pressure to conform.

Question 12

Size of the majority

Answer 12

Little conformity when the majority was one or two people. However, under pressure the majority of three, conformity increases to 33%. Further increases did not increase the level of conformity as people believed it was a prank.

Question 13

Strength of Asch’s study

Answer 13

P - Confederates acted convincingly
E - Mori and Arai carried out a study similar to Asch’s. They gave random participants who became confederates polarising glasses in order to distort their perception, therefore giving the wrong answer. They found the same pravalence of conformity rates were found in Asch’s study.

Question 14

Limitations to Asch’s study - Ethical issues

Answer 14

P - Ethical issues
E - Asch deliberately deceived his participants as they believed they were taking part in a vision test.
However, this was necessary in order to achieve valid results as this could cause demand characteristics otherwise.

Question 15

Limitation to Asch’s study - Era dependent

Answer 15

P - Era dependent
E - Research was conducted in a time when conformity was high. For example, Perrin and Spencer attempted to replicate Asch’s study using maths and engineering students. However, they found only one conforming response out of 396 trials. ‘Child of its time’

Question 16

Limitations to Asch’s study - Lack of ecological validity

Answer 16

P - Lack of mundane realism which leads to a lack of ecological validity.
E - It is unlikely that in the real-world that participants will be asked to compare lines to identify one equal to the target line.