Key Experiments - Asch

Asch (1951)

Method:

• 123 male participants, placed in groups of 6-8 confederates, participant penultimate
• asked to orally answer whether line A, B or C same length as standard line (answer obvious)
• 18 trials for each group, confederates answered wrong in 12/18 tests
• in control group (answered in isolation), wrong answer only 0.7% of the time

Results:

• naive participant gave incorrect answer 36.8% of the time
• 75% of participants conformed to wrong…