Psychology and Society: Week 5
Conformity and the Asch experiment
Conformity: “the convergence of one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours with an external
standard” (Sutton & Douglas, 2013)
OR
“Acting differently from how we would act if we were along, in response to perceived or real
pressure from others” (Cialdini & Trost, 1998)
• S&D’s definition focuses on internal thoughts and feelings, whereas C&T’s definition
focuses more on action
• C&T’s – actions directly contradicts how we would act when alone
“Failing to act in the way that we would do if we were alone, in response to perceived or
real pressure from others” -C&T
• Conformity by omission
• Failure to do act in the way you would normally act otherwise- as a conformist
response
• Key criterion: movement from one’s position to contradictory position
• conformity neither bad or good
• instances where it can be good or bad- holocaust
Kelman (1958), Mann(1969)- Types of conformity:
Private vs public:
• Public: Conforming in social setting to show behaviour in public- whether people can
see you acting or not acting in that way
• Private: Own internal standards change
• Compliance
o Conformity to achieve social rewards, or avoid punishment
o Public but not private conformity
• Conversion / internalization
o Genuine internal acceptance of external norm as own
o Change beliefs
o Private (and public?) conformity
• Identification
o Conforming to establish or maintain relationship with another person or
group
o Social reward- place/status/position kept in group or with person
o Private conformity not necessary- public conformity
• Ingratiation
o Conforming to gain favor or impress-specific social reward
o Motivated by social reward only (particular type)
, Psychology and Society: Week 5
Asch (1956, Expt 1):
- RQ: How many people maintain independence in face of social pressure, and why?
- 7-9 attendees
- Purportedly a visual perception task
- 18 line-matching tasks
- Shown lines for 3 different lengths
- Then shown another line and asked to
match to one of the 3 line in length
- All other attendees were confederates
- Participant recruited ‘at last minute’
- Manipulation: Responses spoken aloud vs
privately written
- Control group: responses written down
by participant
- Experimental groups: responses spoken
aloud
- Real ppts always placed second to last in line of people speaking
- So ppts would hear 3-7 responses before giving their response
- In 12 of 18 trials, majority gave objectively incorrect response
- Degree of ‘incorrectness’: moderate vs extreme
- Conforming responses treated as ‘errors’
- Not a conformity study- A study of independence in face of social pressure
- Post-experimental interviews to clarify reasons for responses
- mixed-methods study- collected both quantitative and qualitative data
Results:
Control: almost all ppts didn’t make any errors- therefore task was easy
- Can assume ppts, who deviate from correct answers in experimental conditions,
have been influenced by social pressure
Experimental group: ppts made at least some errors
- Only 28/123 ppts or 24% retained independence
- 6/123 or 5% conformed to responses on every single trial- made complete errors
(complete conformist)
- Can infer ppts influenced by the behaviour other people
- Results due to social situation
Conformity and the Asch experiment
Conformity: “the convergence of one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours with an external
standard” (Sutton & Douglas, 2013)
OR
“Acting differently from how we would act if we were along, in response to perceived or real
pressure from others” (Cialdini & Trost, 1998)
• S&D’s definition focuses on internal thoughts and feelings, whereas C&T’s definition
focuses more on action
• C&T’s – actions directly contradicts how we would act when alone
“Failing to act in the way that we would do if we were alone, in response to perceived or
real pressure from others” -C&T
• Conformity by omission
• Failure to do act in the way you would normally act otherwise- as a conformist
response
• Key criterion: movement from one’s position to contradictory position
• conformity neither bad or good
• instances where it can be good or bad- holocaust
Kelman (1958), Mann(1969)- Types of conformity:
Private vs public:
• Public: Conforming in social setting to show behaviour in public- whether people can
see you acting or not acting in that way
• Private: Own internal standards change
• Compliance
o Conformity to achieve social rewards, or avoid punishment
o Public but not private conformity
• Conversion / internalization
o Genuine internal acceptance of external norm as own
o Change beliefs
o Private (and public?) conformity
• Identification
o Conforming to establish or maintain relationship with another person or
group
o Social reward- place/status/position kept in group or with person
o Private conformity not necessary- public conformity
• Ingratiation
o Conforming to gain favor or impress-specific social reward
o Motivated by social reward only (particular type)
, Psychology and Society: Week 5
Asch (1956, Expt 1):
- RQ: How many people maintain independence in face of social pressure, and why?
- 7-9 attendees
- Purportedly a visual perception task
- 18 line-matching tasks
- Shown lines for 3 different lengths
- Then shown another line and asked to
match to one of the 3 line in length
- All other attendees were confederates
- Participant recruited ‘at last minute’
- Manipulation: Responses spoken aloud vs
privately written
- Control group: responses written down
by participant
- Experimental groups: responses spoken
aloud
- Real ppts always placed second to last in line of people speaking
- So ppts would hear 3-7 responses before giving their response
- In 12 of 18 trials, majority gave objectively incorrect response
- Degree of ‘incorrectness’: moderate vs extreme
- Conforming responses treated as ‘errors’
- Not a conformity study- A study of independence in face of social pressure
- Post-experimental interviews to clarify reasons for responses
- mixed-methods study- collected both quantitative and qualitative data
Results:
Control: almost all ppts didn’t make any errors- therefore task was easy
- Can assume ppts, who deviate from correct answers in experimental conditions,
have been influenced by social pressure
Experimental group: ppts made at least some errors
- Only 28/123 ppts or 24% retained independence
- 6/123 or 5% conformed to responses on every single trial- made complete errors
(complete conformist)
- Can infer ppts influenced by the behaviour other people
- Results due to social situation
