Extra research evidence for Conformity

How lack of confidence may effect conformity.

• Students used: Majoring in music or in another subject for their degree.
• Students asked to listen to two versions of a piece of music.
• Asked to state their preference, individually and then in presence of confederates.

Results.

• Music majors: Not influenced to change preferences.
• Non-music majors: Significantly affected by the presence of confederates.

Whether women are more conforming than men.

• Size of this difference very small in private. Basically no difference.
• Difference between men and women occurs in group-pressure situations where conformity occurs in public.
• Women are more likely to comply with group.

To see if Asch's study only applied for the time of the study.

• Exact replication of Asch's experiment.
• Used engineering, maths and chemistry students as subjects.
• Only 1 of 396 trials did a participant conform.
• May have been more confident due to their studies.

To see if Asch's study was affected by culture.

• Average conformity rate of collectivist cultures was 37%.
• Average conformity rate of individualist cultures was 25%.
• Collectivist cultures: Members value the collective goals of the group.
• Individualist cultures: Memebers emphasise on personal acheivement.