Variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch Flashcards
(37 cards)
What was Asch’s (1956) aim?
To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority could lead a person to conform, even when the correct answer was obvious.
What type of task did Asch use in his study?
A line judgement task where participants had to match the length of line to one of the three comparison lines.
What was the sample in Asch’s study?
123 male student from Swarthmore College, USA
Who were the confederates in Asch’s in Asch’s study?
Actors who were instructed to give the same wrong answers on certain trials to test conformity.
Where did the real participants sit in the group?
Always second to last, to ensure they heard most of the confederates’ answers before even responding.
How many total trials were there in Asch’ study?
18 trials in total.
What were ‘critical trials’ in Asch’s study?
12 out of 18 trials where all confederates gave the same incorrect answer.
What percentage of the time did participants conform to the wrong answer?
33% of the time on average.
What percentage of participants never conformed?
26% of participants never conformed.
What did Asch’s control group show?
Less than 1% gave incorrect answers (due to human error) when no confederates were present, suggesting the errors in the main study were due to group pressure.
What does Asch’s study suggest about conformity?
Asch’s study suggest that people may conform due to perceived group pressure, even when the answer is clearly right.
What did the participants say in the interview after the study?
Asch interviews his participants after the experiment to find out why they conformed. Most of the participants said that they knew their answers were incorrect, but they went along with the group to fit in.
What did Asch conclude?
Asch concluded that participants conformed due to normative social influence and the desire to fit in.
What type of conformity does Jenness (1932) highlight?
To investigate how group discussion influences individual judgments in an ambiguous task.
What was the procedure of Jenness’ study?
Participants first estimated the number of beans in ajar individually. Then, they discussed the estimate in a group and gave anther private estimate afterward.
What were the results of Jenness’ study?
After the group discussion, participants’ estimates shifted toward thee group average. Males estimates changed by an average of 256 beans, females by 382 beans.
What do the results about Jenness’ study suggest about conformity?
They show people conform in ambiguous situations by using others as a source of information. (ISI)
What type of task was used in Jenness’ study?
An ambigious task, as there was no correct answer.
How does Jenness’ study differ from Asch’s (1956) study in terms of task ambiguity?
Jeness used an ambiguous task (bean estimation), while Asch used a clear, unambiguous task (line judgment with an obvious correct answer.)
What type of conformity does Asch’s study demonstrate?
Normative Social Influence (NSI), where participants conformed to fit in and avoid disapproval despite knowing the correct answer.
What do different findings suggest in Jeness and Asch’s studies suggest about why people conform?
Jeness shows people conform when uncertain (ISI), while Asch shows people conform to avoid social rejection in clear situations (NSI)
What is the clear similarity between Jenness and Asch’s studies?
Both demonstrated that people conform to group norms, but the motivation behind the conformity differs.
What conclusion can be drawn from comparing Jenness and Asch?
Ambiguity increases informational conformity (ISII), while clearly defines tasks may trigger normative conformity.
Why is Asch’s study criticised for having low ecological validity?
Asch’s study has low ecological validity. The task of judging line lengths is artificial and does not reflect real-life conformity scenarios like peer-pressure. This limits the generalisability of everyday situations.
