Social Influence, Conformity: Asch's research

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  • Created by: habzbegum
  • Created on: 07-10-19 11:27
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  • Conformity: Asch's research (1951, 1955)
    • Key Terms
      • Group size
        • Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates.
      • Unanimity
        • The extent to which all members of the group agree.
      • Task difficulty
        • Asch's line judging task gradually became harder.
    • Procedure
      • 123 male Americans were tested individually. Each naive p weren't aware the others were confederates and were asked to compare lines.
      • On the first few trials, all the confederates gave the right answers but then gave incorrect answers (same wrong answer).
      • Each p took part in 18 trials and on 12 'critical trials' the confederates gave the wrong answer.
    • Findings
      • The naive p gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time.
      • Overall, only 25% of participants did not conform at all.
      • When interviewed, participants said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI).
    • Asch's variations
      • Group size
        • With three confederates, conformity rose to 31.8%. Adding more made no difference.
      • Unanimity
        • When there was a dissenter, conformity decreased by a quarter.
      • Task difficulty
        • Asch made the kine-judging task more difficult.and found that conformity increased.
    • Evaluation
      • Perrin and Spencer (1980)
        • Repeated Asch's study but only one student in 396 trials conformed.
          • This is a limitation as it may not be consistent over time and therefore not a fundamental feature of human behaviour.
      • Fiske (2014)

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