Asch's study may be a 'child of its time' - the results are due to the time the experiment took place (50's, USA). During that period of time conformity in the US was particularly high. A similar study was done by Perrin and Spencer (1980) and they found that although signs of conformity were present, there was no evidence for conformity.
Asch has been criticised for using male college students in the study, and therefore his study may not be representative. We cannot generalise to other times, groups (women), or cultures.
Bond (2005) suggests that there might be problem with determinig the group size. He points out that none of the studies other than Asch investigated the effect of a greater group than nine and therefore we don't know much about the effect of significant majority on individual.
As it was an experiment, there is lack of ecological validity. The experiment took place in a lab and was artificial (i.e. we don't compare the lengths of lines in a real life).
Only about a third unanimously gave the same wrong answer, while the rest stuck with their answers despite signs of anxiety. Asch believed that participants showed independent behaviour rather than conformed, i.e. that they said what they believed to be correct judgement.
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