Asch (1951) Conformity Study

Página 1

A: Seeing whether a majority can influence a minority even when the situation is unambiguous and the correct answer is obvious.

P: Asch conducted a lab experiment in which he set up a condition where 7 people looked at a display. In turn they said out loud which of the three lines shown matched the stimulus line (all presented together). All but one participant were confederates, so were instructed to give the same wrong answer unanimously, and the sole participant would offer his or her answer last.

F: The participants were subject to majority influence on 37% of the trials, meaning they offered the same wrong answer that was given by all confederates. As the error rate in the controlled condition was only 0.7%, which means that over 99% of the participants answered correctly when there was no social pressure.

C: The majority can influence a minority, even in an unambiguous situation where the correct answer is obvious. However, two thirds of participants did show resilience to social pressure and answered correctly.

E: There was a culture of high conformity in 1940s and 50s America when the study was carried out, which implies that people were simply fitting in with the cultural norms, and afraid to stand out or show independence not only because of majority influence but also social etiquette.

William and Sogon found that majority influence was greater among friends than strangers. This means that Asch should have considered who he included in the experiment, as majority influence could change depending on the existing relationships between participants.

Asch told us that majority influence was shown in the experiment, but never explained why.

This experiment involved deception, and did not receive informed consent from the participants. This makes it unethical, and therefore low in replicability.