Procedure
- 7 male students looked at two cards. The 'test card' showed one vertical line and the other card showed three differently lengthen vertical lines.
- Participants called out in turn which line was the same as the test line and the answer was obvious.
- Only one person was a genuine participant, he went second from last.
- Accomplices gave the wrong answer in 12 (critical trials) of 18 trials.
- Asch used 50 genuine participants in total.
Findings
- Participants conformed to the incorrect answer on 32% of the critical trials.
- 74% of participants conformed at least once.
- 26% of participants never conformed.
- Some participants said in interviews after, that they thought the wrong line was correct and others said they didn't want to be left out.
Conclusion
- Some people experienced Normative Social Influence and conformed to fit in.
- Some experienced Informational Social Influence and conformed because they believed the answer was right.
Evaluation
- All of participants are male students - low population validity and a very limited sample. It is not valid to generalise results to a wider population. Eg females, other ethnicities
- The time and place could have affected the findings. 1950s - more likely to conform because of the time.
- Perin and Spencer (1980) repeated the experiment in Britiain and conformity responses were a low lower.
- Laboratory experiment - demand characteristics may be present.
- Laboratory experiment - lacks mundane realism and gives low ecological validity.
- Culture bias as they're all from America, can't generalise to other cultures.
- Low internal validity because people could lie in the interviews.
- Confederates meant that participants were being deceived.
- Emotional stress and embarrassment could case ethical issues.
+ Laboratory experiment - can establish cause and effect.
+ Laboratory experiment - replicable and reliable.
+ Laboratory experiment- a lot of control over the variables.
Variations
- Non-unanimous majority - conformity drops to 5%.
- Majority is 2 people - conformity drops to 12.8%.
- Losing a partner - conformity drops to 28%.
- Tasks made more difficult - conformity increases.
- Written down answers - conformity dropped.
Variations
- Non-unanimous majority - conformity drops to 5%.
- Majority is 2 people - conformity drops to 12.8%.
- Losing a partner - conformity drops to 28%.
- Tasks made more difficult - conformity increases.
- Written down answers - conformity dropped.
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Sherif (1935)
Procedure
- Asked individual participants to judge how far a stationary point of light appeared to move on a number of trials in a completely dark room.
- Participants worked alone and in groups of three people, announcing their estimates aloud.
Findings
- As individuals, the strength of the effect was seen differently with different people.
- In groups, a norm emerged through convergence.
- When procedure rearranged to make groups first, the norms emerged even more quickly.
- Participants who then did the individual estimate continued to use the group estimate from before.
Conclusion
When faced with an ambiguous situation, people looked to each other for guidance - Informational Social Influence.
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Crutchfield (1955)
Procedure
- Participants in booths out of sight of each other and all able to see stimulus cards.
- Participants sat individually in booths with a row of switches and lights in front of them.
- They pressed the switch that corresponded to their judgement when it was their turn to answer.
- They were told the lights on the display panel were the responses of other participants but were actually controlled by the experimenter.
Findings
- Conformity levels were 30% when using Asch's line comparison tasks.
- When the task was more difficult, conformity increased.
Conclusion
- Participants experienced Informational Social Influence.
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Perrin & Spencer (1980)
Procedure
- Replicated Asch's procedure using British students.
- Students were from maths, engineering and chemistry.
Findings
- Only one case of conformity in 396 trials.
Conclusion
- Cultural changes over the 30 years had led to the reduction of conformity.
Perrin and Spencer conducted the study again using youths on probation and probation officers as confederates and levels of conformity were similar to Asch's original study.
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Smith & Bond (1998)
Procedure
- Reviewed 31 studies of conformity conducted in different cultures using Asch's procedure.
Findings
- People in collectivist cultures showed higher levels of conformity to those in individualistic cultures.
Conclusion
- People are more likely to experience Normative Social Influence in collectivist cultures because they're more loyal to the group and concerned with the needs of others.
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Zimbardo Prison Experiment (1971)
Procedure
- Well-adjusted, healthy male volunteers were paid $15 a day to take part in a two-week simulation.
- Volunteers randomly allocated roles of prisoners and guards.
- Local police arrested 9 prisoners at their homes without warning. They were taken to the 'prison', stripped, deloused and given smocks to wear with their prisoner number.
- Three guards on each shift wore khaki and sunglasses, carrying batons.
- No physical violence was permitted.
Findings
- The guards harassed and humiliated the prisoners and conformed to their perceived roles.
- Study was cancelled after six days.
- Prisoners rebelled against guards after two days.
- Some prisoners became depressed and anxious and had to be released early.
- By day six, prisoners were completely submissive to the guards.
Conclusion
- The participants experienced Normative Social Influence.
- People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play.
- The roles that people play shape their attitudes and behaviour. (Internalisation)
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Reicher & Haslam (2006)
Procedure
- Used 15 males through volunteer sampling, all well-rounded and sound of mind.
- Randomly divided into five guards and ten prisoners.
- Prisoners allocated to lockable cells where video and audio was recorded.
- Daily swabs of saliva were taken to retrieve cortisol levels.
- Guards could give punishments and rewards and had much better living conditions.
- Prisoners arrived one by one and their heads were shaved and clothes taken away.
- One prisoner was promoted to guard.
Findings
- Guards failed to identify with their roles.
- Prisoners ended up rising up and overthrowing the guards.
- Study had to be ended early because the guards had proposed a new strict regime which overstepped the ethical boundaries.
Evaluation
+ Shows awareness of ethical guidelines.
+ Lab experiment, so in theory could be replicated, meaning a high reliability.
- Behaviour could've been down to the Hawthorne effect.
- Participant differences could have caused the effects observed.
- Small sample size and androcentric, making it low in population validity.
- Lacks mundane realism - low ecological validity.
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