Conformity: Asch's research - evaluation

Weakness: the Asch effect is not consistent across situations/time
Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch's original study with engineering students from the UK and only one student conformed in 396 trials. It is possible that the 1950s were an especially conformist time in America and so it made sense to conform. This is a limitation of Asch's research because it suggests that the Asch effect is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour

Weakness: findings may not be generalisable
Participants knew they were in a study and may have gone along with the demands of the situation (demand characteristics). The task was relatively trivial and there was no reason not to conform. The groups did not resemeble groups which are a part of everyday life. This is a limitation because it means findings may not generalise…