An Cheng Grade 11 3/05/2022 Study outline Study ID: Asch (1956) The aim of the study Asch wanted to test the power of normative social influence on one's likelihood to conform in an unambiguous task. - Procedure IV → Unanimous incorrect response. DV → Level of conformity (agreeing with incorrect). Sample → Male students in the USA They were told that they were taking part in a ‘vision test’. He presented participants with an unambiguous stimulus. - Card 1: a single line. The participants asked to choose the line on card 2 which was the same length as the 1st card. 6 confederates instructed to give wrong answers on certain trials + a naive participant who always answered next to last. There were 18 trials (times when they were asked to compare the lines) 12 answered incorrectly by the confederates. - Control condition → Participant answered all 18 trials without the confederates present and with only the experimenter in the room. After experiment, interviews with participants were carried out. Results and Implications - 12 critical trials, 75% of participants conformed at least once, and 25% of participant never conformed. Control condition → Less than 1% wrong response. Asch interviewed some participants and found that the reason for why they conformed: An Cheng Grade 11 3/05/2022 1. They really thought that they were wrong. 2. They were unsure of their answer. 3. They did not want to be ridiculed by group, so went along with wrong answer, although knowing incorrect. Evaluation - Lacks mundane realism → Task does not have personal meaning to them (low ecological validity). - Control group → Ensure task was not ambiguous. - Ethical concern → Deception. - Some psychologists have criticized the interpretation of the study as exaggerating the role of group pressure on conformity. - Although use of interviews → No way to actually know what they were thinking and how they made their decisions during the actual experiment. The only way is from the participants thinking back and recalling (retrospective in nature, memory bias). - The paradigm has been used repeatedly to test different factors that may influence conformity. - Sampling bias in the original study, but the paradigm has been used with different cultures and genders.
