Asch's Research

Group size 

The number of confederates varied within each group. When there were two confederates were in the group conformity was 13.6%, whereas when there were three the conformity rose to 31.8%. More confederates didn't cause a significant rise.

Unanimity

When there was a dissenting confederate the comformity level dropped to despite whether the confederate was correct or incorrect. Therefore, having a dissenting confederate caused the participant to act independently.

Task Difficulty

As the lengths of the comparison lines increased in similarity the comformity level increased, illustrating infromative social influence. Therefore, suggesting as as the situation becomes more ambiguous the more likely people will look for guidance and assume they are correct.

Procedure

123 American male students were used as a sample and placed into groups with 6-8 confederates. The particpants had to identify the comparison line with the same length as the standard line. 12 out of the 18 trials the partcipant completed the confederates unanimously answered incorrectly.

Results

The naive participant answered incorrectly 36.8% of the time. 75% of the particpants confromed at least once. Most participants admitted to conforming to avoid rejection (NSI) and continued to privately trust their own opinion without displaying them publicly (compliance).

Child of its time

A replication of this study was held by Perrin and Spencer using UK engineering students. The results illustrated that only one student conformed, which suggests that Asch's effect is not consistent over time. 

Artificial task

As the particpants knew it was an experiment demand characteristics could've effected the results. Also the trials were tivial and not important so does not replicate an everday situation. Therefore, due to the lack of internal validity the results should'nt be generlised. 

The findings only apply to certain groups

Firstly, only men were used as a sample, however, it was suggested that women would be more conformist as they are more likely to be concerned about social relationships. Secondly, in individualistic cultures people act more independently, therefore, collectivist cultures will have a rate of conformity as they are concerned with the needs of the groups.