Conformity: evaluation

Strength: Research evidence supports conformity
Lucas et al (2006) asked students to give answers to maths problems that were easy or hard. There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult; this was most true for students who rated their maths ability as poor. This shows that people conform in situations where they don't know the answer, which is the outcome predicted by the ISI

Strength: research evidence supports conformity
Asch (1951) found that many of his participants went along with a clearly wrong answer just because others did. He asked them why and some of the participants said they felt self conscious giving the correct answer and were afraid of disapproval. Asch repeated his study, asking participants to write down their answers and conformity rates fell to 12.5%. This shows that people conform because they don't want to be rejected

Weakness: some research shows that NSI does not affect everyone's behaviour in the same way
People…