In psychology,the Asch conformity experiments or the Asch Paradigm were a series of laboratory experiments directed by Solomon Asch in the 1950s that demonstrated the degree to which an individuals own opinions are influenced by those of a majority group. The methodology developed by Asch has been utilised by many researchers and the paradigm is in use in present day social psychology. The paradigm has been used to investigate the relationship between conformity and task importance,age, gender, and culture. The card on the left has the reference line and the one on the right shows the three comparison lines. In 1951, Solomon Asch of Swarthmore College conducted one of his first conformity laboratory experiments, laying the foundation for his remaining conformity studies. The conformity experiment was published on two occasions. Male college students participated in a simple perceptual task. In reality, all but one of the participants were confederates (i.e., actors), and the true focus of the study was about how the remaining student (i.e., the real participant) would react to the confederates behavior. Each participant was placed in a room with seven confederates. Confederates knew the true aim of the experiment, but were introduced as participants to the real participant. Participants were shown a card with a line on it, followed by a card with three lines on it (lines labeled A, B, and C, respectively). Participants were then asked to say aloud which line (i.e., A, B, or C) matched the line on the first card in length. Each line question was called a trial. Prior to the experiment, all confederates were given specific instructions on how they should respond to each trial. Specifically, they were told to unanimously give the correct response or unanimously give the incorrect response. The group sat in a manner so that the real participant was always the last to respond (the real participant sat towards the end of a table). For the first two trials, the participant would feel at ease in the experiment, as he and the confederates gave the obvious, correct answer. On the third trial, the confederates would all give the same wrong answer, placing the participant in a dilemma. There were 18 trials in total and the confederates answered incorrectly for 12 of them. These 12 were known as the critical trials. The aim was to see whether the real participant would change his answer and respond in the same way as the confederates, despite it being the wrong answer. Once the experiment was completed, the real participant was individually interviewed; towards the end of the interview, the participant was debriefed about the true purpose of the study. Participants responses to interview questions were a valuable component of Aschs study because it gave him a glimpse of the psychological aspects of the experimental situation. It also provided Asch with information about individual differences among participants. Solomon Aschs experiment also had a control condition where there were no confederates, only a real participant. This meant that one participant answered to all 18 trials without the group of confederates present and with only the experimenter in the room. In total, there were 50 real participants that took part in the experimental condition and 37 participants in the control condition. Results All results are based on participants responses to critical trials. In the control group, with no pressure to conform to confederates, the error rate was less than 1%. An examination of all critical trials in the experimental group revealed that one-third of all responses were incorrect. These incorrect responses often matched the incorrect response of the majority group (i.e., confederates). Overall, in the experimental group, 75% of the participants gave an incorrect answer to at least one question. Through analysis of participants interview responses, Asch discovered that there were vast individual differences in reaction to the experimental situation. Interview data revealed that participants who did not conform to the majority group —and thus remained independent from the group —reacted to the experiment in particular ways. Some reacted with confidence in their perception and experience. That is, despite experiencing conflict between their idea of the obvious answer and the groups incorrect answer, they stuck with the answer that was based on their own perception. Others were withdrawn, suggesting that they stuck with their perception without experiencing conflict as those in the confidence group. Some participants also exhibited doubt. This meant that they experienced great doubt and tension but nonetheless stuck with their correct responses because they felt a need to adequately take part in the task. Moreover, interview data with participants that did conform to the majority group on at least one-half or more of the trials —and thus yielded to the group —also exhibited certain reactions to the experiment. Some participants reacted with a distortion of perception. These participants (very few) conformed on nearly all trials and actually believed that the confederates incorrect answers were true. They were never aware that the majority gave incorrect answers. Other participants exhibited a distortion of judgment (most belonged to this category). This meant that participants got to a point where they realized that they must be wrong and that the majority must be right, leading them to answer with the majority. These individuals lacked confidence and were very doubtful. Lastly, participants exhibited a distortion of action, suggesting that they knew what the correct answer was, but conformed with the majority group simply because they didnt want to seem inferior.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:17:13 +0000