Outline and evaluate research into conformity
Normative social influence demonstrates that people conform because the feel the need to be
socially accepted, whereas informative social influence shows that people conform because of their
desire to be right. However, research has established that there are a number of different variables
affecting conformity.
Asch (1956) investigated how people behave in unambiguous situations, whether people would
conform or stick to their own choice when the answer is clear. 123 American male graduates were
each placed in a group of 4, the other 3 members of the group being confederates. Asch then
showed them a series of lines (standard line and possible answers). The confederates were
instructed to give the incorrect answer on 12 trials and the true participant was always the last to
answer. The findings revealed that 36.8% of responses by true participants were incorrect as they
conformed to giving the correct answer. 25% never gave the wrong answer, therefore it must mean
that at least 75% gave the wrong answer at least once. These results concluded that humans have a
tendency to conform to group pressure even when the answer is clear. Although, 2/3 stuck to their
own answers on certain trials, demonstrating that sometimes individuals can resist pressure.
It may have been possible that Asch’s results were unique due to the research taking place in a
particular time period in America when conformity as considered to be the social norm. In 1956,
America was in the midst of a strong Anti-Communist period, therefore people were often scared to
go against the norm and so would be more likely to conform. Additionally, the study pertains a
number of ethical issues, such as psychological stress caused by disagreeing with the majority.
Deception was also involved as Asch had told the participants they were taking part in a vision test.
However, in spite of this, deception was necessary in order to obtain valid results. Another problem
is that the experiment used an artificial task to measure conformity - judging line lengths. This
denotes that the study has low ecological validity and so the results cannot be generalized to other
real life situations of conformity.
Perrin and Spencer (1980) attempted to repeat Asch’s study in the UK in the 1980s using students
who were studying science and engineering. Contrastingly, they only obtained one conforming
response out of 396 trials. This revealed that Asch’s results were most likely affected by cultural and
historical factors such as the time period and the state of America at the time.
One factor that has been identified to affect conformity is group size. Asch discovered that there was
little conformity when the majority was made up of 1 or 2 confederates. However, when, in a group
of 4, the majority consisted of 3 confederates, conformity levels rose significantly by about 30%.
Despite this, it appeared that any more increases in the majority size did not have a major impact on
conformity levels. Therefore showing that group size is an important factor but only to a certain
extent.
On a contradictory note, Campbell and Fairey (1989) suggested that group size can have a different
effect on conformity, depending on the type of judgement being made and the motivation of the
individual. On a music preference task, where there is no obviously correct answer, individuals are
more concerned about fitting in and so the larger the majority, the more likely they are to be swayed
when it comes to answering. However, when there is a correct response and the individual wants to
be right, then 1 or 2 others is usually enough.
Another factor that affects conformity is the unanimity of the majority. In Asch’s original study, all the
people that were with the true participant were confederates and so they all gave the wrong answer.
When the participants were given the support of either another participant or another confederate,
conformity levels dropped from 33% to about 5.5%. When only one person gave an incorrect answer
that was different to the majority and the participant, conformity levels dropped to approximately
Normative social influence demonstrates that people conform because the feel the need to be
socially accepted, whereas informative social influence shows that people conform because of their
desire to be right. However, research has established that there are a number of different variables
affecting conformity.
Asch (1956) investigated how people behave in unambiguous situations, whether people would
conform or stick to their own choice when the answer is clear. 123 American male graduates were
each placed in a group of 4, the other 3 members of the group being confederates. Asch then
showed them a series of lines (standard line and possible answers). The confederates were
instructed to give the incorrect answer on 12 trials and the true participant was always the last to
answer. The findings revealed that 36.8% of responses by true participants were incorrect as they
conformed to giving the correct answer. 25% never gave the wrong answer, therefore it must mean
that at least 75% gave the wrong answer at least once. These results concluded that humans have a
tendency to conform to group pressure even when the answer is clear. Although, 2/3 stuck to their
own answers on certain trials, demonstrating that sometimes individuals can resist pressure.
It may have been possible that Asch’s results were unique due to the research taking place in a
particular time period in America when conformity as considered to be the social norm. In 1956,
America was in the midst of a strong Anti-Communist period, therefore people were often scared to
go against the norm and so would be more likely to conform. Additionally, the study pertains a
number of ethical issues, such as psychological stress caused by disagreeing with the majority.
Deception was also involved as Asch had told the participants they were taking part in a vision test.
However, in spite of this, deception was necessary in order to obtain valid results. Another problem
is that the experiment used an artificial task to measure conformity - judging line lengths. This
denotes that the study has low ecological validity and so the results cannot be generalized to other
real life situations of conformity.
Perrin and Spencer (1980) attempted to repeat Asch’s study in the UK in the 1980s using students
who were studying science and engineering. Contrastingly, they only obtained one conforming
response out of 396 trials. This revealed that Asch’s results were most likely affected by cultural and
historical factors such as the time period and the state of America at the time.
One factor that has been identified to affect conformity is group size. Asch discovered that there was
little conformity when the majority was made up of 1 or 2 confederates. However, when, in a group
of 4, the majority consisted of 3 confederates, conformity levels rose significantly by about 30%.
Despite this, it appeared that any more increases in the majority size did not have a major impact on
conformity levels. Therefore showing that group size is an important factor but only to a certain
extent.
On a contradictory note, Campbell and Fairey (1989) suggested that group size can have a different
effect on conformity, depending on the type of judgement being made and the motivation of the
individual. On a music preference task, where there is no obviously correct answer, individuals are
more concerned about fitting in and so the larger the majority, the more likely they are to be swayed
when it comes to answering. However, when there is a correct response and the individual wants to
be right, then 1 or 2 others is usually enough.
Another factor that affects conformity is the unanimity of the majority. In Asch’s original study, all the
people that were with the true participant were confederates and so they all gave the wrong answer.
When the participants were given the support of either another participant or another confederate,
conformity levels dropped from 33% to about 5.5%. When only one person gave an incorrect answer
that was different to the majority and the participant, conformity levels dropped to approximately
