Conformity: Asch's research
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- Created on: 19-02-18 17:27
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- Conformity: Asch's research
- Key study 1: Asch (1951) conformity research
- Procedure
- Solomon Asch recruited 123 American male students.
- Each was tested individually with a group of between six and eight confederates.
- On each trial participants identified the length of a standard line.
- On the first few trials confederates gave correct answers but then all selected the same wrong answers.
- Each participants completed 18 trials.
- On 12 critical trials confederates gave the wrong answer.
- Each participants completed 18 trials.
- Solomon Asch recruited 123 American male students.
- Findings and conclusion
- The naive participants gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time.
- This shows a high level of conformity, called the Asch effect, the extent to which people conform even in a unambiguous situation.
- There were considerable individual differences:
- 25% of the participants never gave the wrong answer, so 75% conformed at least once. A few participants conformed most of the time.
- Most participants said they conformed to avoid rejection and continued to privately trust their own opinions.
- The naive participants gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time.
- Procedure
- Key study 2: Asch (1955) variables affecting conformity
- Procedure
- Group size
- The number of confederates varied between 1 to 15
- Unanimity
- Asch introduced a truthful confederate or a confederate who was dissenting but inaccurate
- task difficulty
- Asch made the line- judging task harder by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length
- Group size
- findings and conclusion
- Group size
- With two confederates, conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6%
- with three it rose to 31.8%
- adding any more confederates made little difference
- With two confederates, conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6%
- unanimity
- the presence of a dissenting confederate reduced conformity
- whether the dissenter was giving the right or wrong answer.
- The figure was 25% wrong answers.
- having a dissenter enabled a naïve participant to behave more independently
- the presence of a dissenting confederate reduced conformity
- Task difficulty
- conformity increased when the task was more difficult.
- So informational social influence plays a greater role when the task becomes harder.
- the situation is more ambiguous, so we are more likely to look to others for guidance and assume they are right.
- Group size
- Procedure
- Key study 1: Asch (1951) conformity research
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