Outline Research into Conformity (6 marks)

Asch conducted a study to investigate the effects of majority influence on conformity.

He asked 123 male volunteers to take part in a 'vision' test. The real purpose of the experiment however was to see how the participants would react to the behaviours of Asch's confederates. Participants were seated in a room and were told to look at three lines of different lengths. They were then asked to state, in turn, which of the three lines had the same length as the 'standard' line. In each group there was only one real participant and this person would always answer either second to last or last. The confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer on 12 of the 18 trials.

Despite the correct answer to the task was fairly obvious, Asch found that 36.8% of the responses made by true participants were incorrect; they conformed to the incorrect answe given by the majority. However 25% of the participants never conformed at all.

Asch later interviewed some of the conforming participants and found that most said that they privately trusted their own perceptions and judgement however changed their public behaviour to avoid disapproval from other group members - they complied.

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Psychology - Conformity AQA