Variables affecting conformity

Asch (1956)
1. studied conformity using 'visual discrimination' where group of participants say out loud which of three lines matched a standard line
  1. All but one participant were confederates who gave unanimously incorrect answer on 2/3 of 18 trials
2. Conformity was lower when group size was smaller & increased as group size increased
  1. very little conformity with 1/2 confederates, but with 3 conformity rose to 33% however further increase in group size did not lead to more conformity
3. conformity decreased when unanimity was disturbed
  1. when unanimous conformity 33%, when disturbed conformity 6%
4. Made task more difficult by making the lines more similar, conformity increased the more difficult the task got
  1. when task is easy = normative social influence - compliance, when task is hard = informational social influence
Evaluation
1. Not all participants conformed when majority unanimously incorrect
  1. 2/3 trials participants kept original answer despite majority giving wrong answer
    1. indicates tendency to show independent behaviour rather than conforming
      1. this suggests majority influence is not as strong as a higher proportion of trials produced an independent response than those who conformed
2. Asch's findings may not be true today
  1. USA was affected by McCarthyism at the time, so people were scared to go against the majority
  2. Perrin & Spencer (1980) replicated Asch's study only had 1 conforming response in 386 trials
  3. Suggests conformity levels change over time, study may be a 'child of its time' rather thana universal phenomenon - low temporal validity
3. Studies have used limited majority sizes
  1. Asch felt majority of 3 was a sufficient number for maximum influence
  2. Bond (2005) only Asch used a majority greater than nine, most studies use between 2-4
  3. suggests we know very little about larger conformity rates
4. Asch's confederates may have been unconvincing
  1. If confederates were not convincing the internal validity of the study would be low
  2. Mori & Arai (2010) overcame this by giving each participants glasses which altered what they saw, therefore no need for confederates
  3. findings had similar conformity levels so confederates did act convincingly and that his findings are valid
5. Cultural Differences in conformity
  1. So should expect different results in different cultures
  2. Smith et al (2006) average conformity rate inn individualist cultures was 25%, while average in collectivist cultures was 37%
  3. Suggests culture has an impact on conformity rate in that cultures that value interdependence more whill have higher rate of conformity than those who value independence (indiviudalist)

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Variables affecting conformity

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	Created by Hannah Atkinson about 8 years ago