Conformity: Asch's Research (variations)

Group size- he found that with three confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%. But the addition of further confederates made little difference

This suggests that there is no need for a majority of more than three

Unanimity- he introduced a dissenting confederate (a confederate who disagreed with the others) and found that conformity was reduced by a quarter of a level 

This suggests that the influence of the majority depends to some extent on the group being anonymous 

Task difficulty- he made the task more difficult by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length. Conformity increased under these conditions

This suggests that informational social influence occurs when a situation is more ambiguous