PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
Study 1 - Asch (1955)
Opinions and social pressure (pg 68-75))
Field of psychology: Social
1. CONTEXT AND AIMS
Context
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What is conformity? What is the opposite of conformity?
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In what way are the groups above conforming? How have you conformed today?
“Life in society
requires consensus
as an indispensable
condition”
Because an individual is often influenced by the way the majority
of people think or act, we call this majority influence. However,
just because a person goes along with the majority in public, it
does not mean that they have changed their private beliefs. If
someone only alters their behaviour to conform they are
showing public compliance. Someone who alters both their
behaviour and their beliefs would be showing private acceptance.
Solomon Asch
Conformity is an important area for psychologists to investigate, as
the way that we behave when in groups can have a massive impact on our behaviour.
Conformity has many real world applications such as jury decision-making and
behaviour in classrooms.
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What did Jenness (1932) do and find?
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
An issue with Jenness’s study is that it is limited as the participants were specifically asked to produce a
group estimate, rather than just observing whether they would produce similar estimate naturally without
prompting.. However, these results suggest that in an ambiguous situation, we look to others to get a
reasonable answer.
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How did Sherif (1935) use the autokinetic effect to investigate conformity?
Sherif’s study is an improvement over Jenness’s as the participants were not specifically told to produce a
group estimate. His participants arrived at a group norm under their own volition.
An issue with the studies above is that they are both ambiguous situations, where there is no clear correct
answer. It may be plausible that in these situations, conforming to a group norm is a sensible course of
action. However, in 1955 there was little scientific evidence to suggest if and how people would conform in
a situation where there was no ambiguity, and a clear correct answer.
Asch also took issue with the methodology of these studies:
“…confronted with opinions contrary to their own, many subjects apparently
shifted their judgment in the direction of the views of the majorities ... there is
some reason to wonder whether it was not the investigators who, in their
enthusiasm for a theory, were suggestible, and whether gullible subjects were
providing answers they thought good subjects were expected to give.”
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Think back to your work on research methods. What terms can we use to sum up Asch’s criticisms?
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Asch also gave two further reasons for the importance of studying conformity. Read the
information on page , and complete below
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
Aims
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What was Asch’s main aim?
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He also aimed to investigate the effect of various factors on the rate of conformity. Read the information at the
top of page 69 , and group them below, predicting whether the rate of conformity will be higher, or lower
Higher conformity
Lower Conformity
Summary
Context
 Definition of conformity
 Jenness (1932)
 Sherif (1935)
 Technology allowing mass social
influence
 Conformity in Nazi Germany
Aims
To investigate whether participant would
conform to an unambiguous situation
To investigate if conformity would be
influenced by various factors.
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
2. PROCEDURES
Asch carried out a number of variations of the same experiment. You need to know in-depth procedures for
the baseline study, and also some of the variations. Use the textbook page 69.
BASELINE STUDY
Number and make-up of
participants
Research method used
Experimental design
Independent variable
Dependant variable
Outline the procedure
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The participants were asked to take part in a “vision experiment”.
However, the real aim of the study was to investigate conformity.
In each trial, there was one naïve participant and six to eight
confederates (or stooges). These were people who knew the aims
of the study and acted in the way that the experimenters told them.
The group are shown two large white cards. One has a single line
on it, which is to be matched in length to one of three lines of
different length on the other card (see below).
The group of participants verbally reports their visual judgments in
order. This task is repeated 18 times.
The last but one participant in each group is the ‘naïve’ participant.
The confederates have been told to give the same obviously wrong
answer on 12 of the 18 trials. These 12 trials are called critical
trials.
The participants could react on one of two ways. They could either
verbally report the same answer as the rest of the participants (an
obviously wrong answer) i.e. conform, or they could report a
different answer to the rest of the participants (the correct answer),
i.e. not conform.
After the experiment, the participants were debriefed and told the
true aim of the study and interviewed about their responses and
behaviour.
Naive participant
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
Think about the procedure above, and answer the following two questions. Wherever you can, try to use
correct research methods terminology:
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Q1: Why was the naïve participant always second from last?
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Q2: Why did the confederates not give a wrong answer on every trial?
VARIATIONS ON THE BASELINE PROCEDURE
Outline the procedures for the following variations (you only need to describe how this procedure is
different from the baseline, you don’t need to go into as much detail)
The size of the majority
A truthful partner
An inaccurate partner
A partner who changes his mind
A partner who leaves
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
Asch also investigated the effect of gradual majority influence. In this procedure, the confederates all
began by giving the correct answer, but then one by one began giving wrong answers, until eventually the
participants was alone and the group unanimously against him.
He also investigated the effect on the degree of wrongness of the majority. He varied the discrepancy
between the standard line and the other lines, with the aim of reaching a point where the error was so
glaringly obvious, that no-one would every subject would be compelled to give the right answer.
3. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
Similarly to the procedures, you need to know the findings and conclusions from the baseline study, and
also from some of the variations.
Findings
In a control study carried out before this experiment, it was found that less than 1% of people made errors
when carrying out this task when by themselves. What does this suggest about the line estimating task?
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The baseline study
Asch found that participants gave wrong answers 36.8% of the time. This
means that of all the critical trials, 36.8% of responses were wrong
(however, it also means that 63.2% of responses were right).
However, there was a considerable amount of difference between
individuals with regards to how much they conformed.
 25% of participants never gave a wrong answer once i.e. they did
not conform. (Conversely, this means that 75% of participants
conformed at least once.)
 At the other extreme, some participants agreed with the majority
on nearly every critical trial.
Regardless of whether the participant conformed or did not conform, their
behaviour was constant.
Those who didn’t agree with the majority, tended not to agree with them
consistently. Asch states “Those who strike out on the path to
independence, do not, as a rule, succumb to the majority”.
 Interviews with the participants after the experiment showed that
independent individuals
o had “staunch confidence in their own judgment”
o had the “capacity to recover from doubt and to re-establish
their equilibrium”
o felt it was “their obligation to call the play as they saw it”
Graph showing the number of correct
answers when alone (top line) and when
with the confederates (bottom line)
Those who did agree with the majority, tended to agree consistently. As Asch says “Those who chose the
path of compliance are unable to free themselves, and the ordeal is prolonged”.
 Compliant (conforming) individuals
o believed that “I am wrong, they are right”
o conformed so as “not to spoil the results"
o suspected the majority were “sheep” following the first responding participant
o thought the majority were “victim of an optical illusion”
o thought they were ‘deficient’ in comparison to the rest of the group, and this deficiency’
needed to be hidden at all costs
 Compliant individuals also tended to under estimate the frequency with which they conformed.
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
Variations on the baseline study
The size of the majority
A truthful partner
An inaccurate partner
A partner who changes his mind
A partner who leaves
Gradual Majority Influence
Asch found that as long as the participant had at least one other person on his side, he was nearly always
independent and gave the correct answer. However, as soon as he found himself alone, the tendency to
conform to the majority rose abruptly.
Degree of wrongness
Surprisingly, even when the difference between the correct answer and wrong answer was 7 inches (and
so there is no doubt what the correct answer is), some participants still conformed and went with the
majority in giving the wrong answer!
Conclusions
What is the main conclusion from all of the findings above? (Baseline and variations)
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
What can be concluded about the effect of the size of the majority and the effect of a dissenter?
“That we have found the tendency to conformity in our society so strong that reasonably
intelligent and well meaning young people are willing to call white black is a matter of
concern… Yet anyone inclined to draw too pessimistic conclusions from this report
would do well to remind himself that the capacities for independence are not to be
underestimated…those who participated in this challenging experiment agreed
However:
nearly without exception that independence was preferable to conformity”.
What can this study tell us about resisting conformity?
4. EVALUATING THE METHODOLOGY
Method: This study took place in a laboratory. The advantages of this
are:___________________________
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However:
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Reliability: Larsen (1974) replicated Asch’s experiment and found that the conformity levels were a lot
lower than what Asch found. Similarly, Perrin and Spencer (1980) conducted a similar experiment and
found that out of 396 trials, only one participant conformed. What does this suggest about the
reliability of this experiment?
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
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Validity: One of Asch’s criticisms of Sherif and Jenness was that the participants in those studies may
have been led to act a certain way by the experimenter through investigator effects. Could the
same criticism be made of Asch’s study?
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Was the line comparison task a valid test of conformity? Would different results have been gained if the
participants had been given a different task?
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How ecologically valid was this study?
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The participants had to say their answer out loud in front of strangers? Could this have affected the levels
of conformity?
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Sampling: The sampling method used was “volunteer/self selected”. What issues could this raise for this
study?
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Was the sample biased?
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
Ethical issues: Were there any ethical issues raised by this study?
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5. CRITICALLY ASSESS WITH REFERENCE TO ALTERNATIVE EVIDENCE
Look back at the studies by Sherif and Jenness. Do these findings support, contradict, or develop Asch’s
results?
As mentioned above, both Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch’s
experiment, but found a much lower level of conformity (1 person conformed
out of 396 trials). A number of explanations have been developed to explain
why Asch found such a high level of conformity in his study.
 It has been argued by some that Asch’s study was a child of it’s time.
1950s America was a highly conformist society, with the anticommunist McCarthyism fostering an environment which was distrustful of
outsiders.
 However, it has also been argued that Asch’s study is more realistic and valid, as
the study by Perrin and Spencer used science students as its participants. It may be that they may
have felt more confident about their ability to measure lines, and so conformed less.

Modern research however seems to support Asch’s findings. Read the information on page 72-3. What did
Nicholson et al (1985) find?
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PY2 Core Studies: 2 – Asch (1955)
All of the participants used in Asch’s study were men. However, there is evidence that there are differences
in the way men and women conform to social influence. Eagly (1978) performed a meta-analysis,
analysing the results from many studies into conformity. She found that women are more conforming than
men in group pressure situations.
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Can you think of a reason why this would be the case?
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Asch’s study only used participants from the USA. What did Smith and Bond (1988) do, what did they find,
and what does this suggest about Asch’s original study? (pg 73)
Use three colours to highlight research that supports, contradicts, or develops Asch’s research (some
may be more than one colour).
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