Several variations of
Asch's original experiment
have been completed. In
these the size of the group
has been manipulated,
i.e. the amount of
confederates is varied
and the effect on levels
on conformity is
measured.
Conformity is low with one confederate,
3%. With three confederates the
onformity has been found to be 33%.
Thisis similar to Asch's findings of 37%.
Then there is a ceiling effect i.e.
with further confederates, the
same conformity is seen.
Multiple replications show that
conformity is at its maximum with a
3-5 person majority (in some
casees too many confederates,
e.g. 15, make the person
suspicious, and this lowers
conformity rates.
Time
When Perrin and Spencer
replicated Asch's study in
1981 using male students
just as Asch had, there was
only one instance of
conformity in the 396 trials.
Asch's studies were conducted in the 1950s
America, at a time known as the
'McCarthyist' era when Senator McCarthy
had openly suggested that people who
appeared 'different' would be seen as
distrustful, radical and maybe even
communist.
As a result the suggestion is
that people would have
conformed a lot more at ths
time than they would
nowadays, therefore there is
an issue with historical validity.
Place and Culture
Differences between individualist and
collectivist cultures can explain differing
levels of conformity across countries.
Collectivist cultures are more independent and
emphasise group cohesion -they conform to protect
this and thus conform more than individualist cultures
Smith and Bond, 1993, undertook a
meta-analysis of conformity studies
across many places. They foud
conformity was highest in fiji at 58% and
lowest in Blegium at 14%.
The Smith and Bond study supports this
suggestion as it found conformity in
individualist countries to be 25%. On
average, compared with 37% on average
in collectivist countries.
Modern Technology
The upsurge in emerging
technologies has had a strong effect
on how people can exert the social
influence of conformity.
. It has meant that minority groups get
heard more easily but psychologists have
assessed whether or not social influence
is as strong as across the medium of the
internet.
Cinerella and Green, 2005, found that conformity is
generally lower when we can't see the people exerting the
social influence, i.e. if communicating over facebook or
other social inetworking sites.