Asch's research

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Describe Asch's research into conformity

What happened?

Solomon Asch tested conformity by showing two cards at the same time to participants who were american male undergraduate students. The left hand card was showing the standard line and the right hand card was showing three comparition lines. They had to say which of the three comparition lines was the same lenght as the standard line. This happened in a room with a group of people.

Two types of participants were in this group: the genuine or naive participants, and confederates who were told from the beginning which answers they had to say. The naive participants were alone in a group of 6-8 confederates. The naive participants were always seated eighter last or next to the last in the group. The participants gave their answers out-loud one by one beginning with the first person.

On the first few trials all the confederates gave the right answers but then they started making errors. Altogether each participant took part in 18 trials and on 12 çritical trials' confederates gave the wrong answer.

Asch was interested in how the different variations and conditions might lead to an increase or decrease in conformity. To find out more he carried out different variations of his original study.

The first one would affect the group size: This study suggested that a small majority will not result in high conformity.

The second one was about unanimity: This study shows that a dissenting confederate reduces conformity by a quarter.

The third one would affect the task difficulty: This study shows that ISI plays a greater role when task becomes harder.

What was found?

The naive participants gave the wrong answers 36,8% of the time. 25% did not conform at all. 75% conformed at least once.

Participants were interviewed after the experiment ended and most of them claimed to conform because they did not want to be rejected by the group. (NSI)

Under pressure people conform especially if they are in group. (and the group is their friends or someone they know - actually I think that's wrong, but WHATEVER)