AS Psychology- Conformity Studies

Asch (1951):123 students participated in perception task.

• placed in grroups of 7-9- confederates were also present.
• shown a card displaying one card and another displaying 3 comparison lines.
• asked to call out which of the three lines matched the standard line.
• each group had 18 trials. for 12 trials, confederates told to give wrong answers. For 6 trials, they gave the wrong answer of the longer line, and for the other 6, they gave the incorrect answer of the shorter line.
• the overall conformity rate was 37 per cent
• the number which conformed was 5 per cent
• those who remained completely independent was 25 per cent.

Sherif (1936): participants taken individually in a room.

• asked to focus in a single spot of light in a dark room. in a dark room, light will appear to move due to the movement of the eyes.
• participants asked to estimate how far the light went and in what direction.
• task was ambiguous as the light didn't actually move.
• estimates varied.

Zimbardo (1971): explored whether the brutality…