Majority Influence - Asch
Asch wanted to investigate whether people would conform to a majority even when the task was obvious 123 American undergrads participated in the study, being split into groups of 5-7, with only one person being the true participant and the rest being confederates that surrounded the participant who sat second to last within the group. They were asked to complete a "Vision test", where they were given a line and had to find another line that best fit. The task was unambiguous, but confederates were told to give a unanimous incorrect response to influence the participant to conform.
Results displayed that 37% of trials showed a conforming response. 75% of participants showed to conform at least once, while 25% did not conform at all. This concluded that a majority can influence a minority, even in an unambiguous situation. Asch had showed that majority influence was much stronger than what had been previously thought.
One limitation of his study was the use of a biased sample. All participants were male, undergraduates and of a similar age range. This suggests that the study lacks population validity and therefore cannot be generalised to the rest of the population. Furthermore, and meta-analysis conducted by Eagly and Carli, show that women were more compliant than men as they were more concerned with social relationships. This could suggest that if Asch had used women in his study, the levels of conformity may have been higher.
Another drawback is the ethical issues the experiment presented. They deceived the participants, for example being told that everyone was a participant when in reality were confederates. This affects their ability to give informed consent as they were also deceived when told they were taking part in a "vision test" and not an investigation into majority influence. After the study, participants who conformed felt humiliated and foolish for doing so and under such a stressful environment, psychological harm may have occurred. This study would go against ethical guidelines is conducted today.
A negative criticism of Asch's research is that it lacks temporal validity. At the time the research was conducted, there was the strong power of McCarthyism where people were scared to go against the majority. Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch's original study with engineering students in the UK. Only one student confirmed in a total of 396 Trials. This suggests that due to America being much more conformist in the 50s during Asch's research than nowadays, it questions the credibility of Asch's research and its applicability to the modern day context. Further supporting this, Nicholson tested conformity before and during the Falklands War. He showed that conformity levels rose once war had begun and this was due to the war bringing cohesiveness to society. This further supports the idea of "child of its time" as results from Nicholson's research may not be applicable today.
A limitation has been argued that cultural variation have been impacting conformity. In support of this, Smith and bond reviewed experiments in both individualist and collectivist cultures in a meta-analysis. Out of 31 studies, results show that conformity was hire in collectivist cultures and individualist. This was due to collectivist countries being more concerned with group needs than themselves which Asch's study involved. This suggests that if Asch's study had used Chinese undergraduates, his results of conformity may have been significantly higher.
Asch was further interested in the conditions that might lead to an increase or a decrease in conformity. He investigated these by carrying out some variations of his original procedure.
Results displayed that 37% of trials showed a conforming response. 75% of participants showed to conform at least once, while 25% did not conform at all. This concluded that a majority can influence a minority, even in an unambiguous situation. Asch had showed that majority influence was much stronger than what had been previously thought.
One limitation of his study was the use of a biased sample. All participants were male, undergraduates and of a similar age range. This suggests that the study lacks population validity and therefore cannot be generalised to the rest of the population. Furthermore, and meta-analysis conducted by Eagly and Carli, show that women were more compliant than men as they were more concerned with social relationships. This could suggest that if Asch had used women in his study, the levels of conformity may have been higher.
Another drawback is the ethical issues the experiment presented. They deceived the participants, for example being told that everyone was a participant when in reality were confederates. This affects their ability to give informed consent as they were also deceived when told they were taking part in a "vision test" and not an investigation into majority influence. After the study, participants who conformed felt humiliated and foolish for doing so and under such a stressful environment, psychological harm may have occurred. This study would go against ethical guidelines is conducted today.
A negative criticism of Asch's research is that it lacks temporal validity. At the time the research was conducted, there was the strong power of McCarthyism where people were scared to go against the majority. Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch's original study with engineering students in the UK. Only one student confirmed in a total of 396 Trials. This suggests that due to America being much more conformist in the 50s during Asch's research than nowadays, it questions the credibility of Asch's research and its applicability to the modern day context. Further supporting this, Nicholson tested conformity before and during the Falklands War. He showed that conformity levels rose once war had begun and this was due to the war bringing cohesiveness to society. This further supports the idea of "child of its time" as results from Nicholson's research may not be applicable today.
A limitation has been argued that cultural variation have been impacting conformity. In support of this, Smith and bond reviewed experiments in both individualist and collectivist cultures in a meta-analysis. Out of 31 studies, results show that conformity was hire in collectivist cultures and individualist. This was due to collectivist countries being more concerned with group needs than themselves which Asch's study involved. This suggests that if Asch's study had used Chinese undergraduates, his results of conformity may have been significantly higher.
Asch was further interested in the conditions that might lead to an increase or a decrease in conformity. He investigated these by carrying out some variations of his original procedure.
- Group Size - He wanted to know whether the size of the group
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