Asch's Research into Conformity
- Created by: mayono1
- Created on: 26-02-19 10:24
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- Asch's Research into Conformity
- Procedure
- Asch showed participants 2 large white cards at a time. On one card was a 'standard' line and on the other there were comparison lines.
- The participant was asked which of the comparison lines were the same length as the standard.
- There were 123 American male undergrads. Each were tested with 6-8 confeds.
- All confeds were instructed to give the wrong answer. There were 18 trials and on 12, the confeds gave the wrong answer.
- Findings
- The participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time. Overall 25% of the participants didn't conform on any trials.
- Asch effect = the extent to which participants conform even when the situation is unambiguous.
- After, the participants said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI).
- Variations
- Group size: with 3 confeds conformity rose to 31.8% but the addition of more made little difference.
- Unanimity: the presence of a dissenting confed led conformity to reduce by 1/4.
- Task difficulty: when the comparison lines were more similar there was an increase in conformity. This suggests more ISI.
- Evaluation
- Outdated - Perrin & Spencer (1980) found people to be less conformist. 1950's was a conformist time.
- Artificial - it didn't resemble real life situations and could've been subject to demand characteristics
- Limited application - Only men were tested and other research suggests women are more conformist. Cinformity is higher in collectivist cultures.
- Procedure
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