Variable affecting conformity

Asch’s research became a platform for a wealth of research into conformity. Asch himself conducted numerous variations to determine how different factors affect conformity, including group size, unanimity, and task difficulty.

GROUP SIZE: Asch systematically varied the size of the group to examine its effect on conformity. In his original experiment, the average conformity rate was 36.8%. The table on the left outlines the average conformity rate for a range of different groups sizes.

The results reveal that conformity reaches a peak of approximately 30% with just three confederates and remains relatively stable from three confederates to 15. This suggests that just three confederates are enough to create a majority and that this majority can exert enough pressure to trigger NSI.

UNANIMITY: Unanimity refers to whether or not people agree: or whether they are unanimous in their opinion. In the original Asch experiment, the confederates always gave the same, unanimous, incorrect answers on the 12 critical trials.

Asch examined the power of unanimity in two ways: in one variation a single confederate gave the correct answer throughout and in a second variation, a single confederate gave a different incorrect answer throughout. In the first variation, conformity dropped from 36.8% to just 5% and in the second variation, it dropped to 9%. Both of these variations demonstrate the power of a unanimous majority; if the unanimity is broken, then conformity is less likely to take place.

TASK DIFFICULTY: Conformity took place in Asch’s original experiment, despite the fact that the correct answer was always obvious. In one variation, Asch made the task harder by making the differences between the lines (A, B and C) much smaller. This made the task more ambiguous as the correct answer was not always obvious. In this variation, Asch found that conformity actually increased; however, it is worth noting that in this variation this could be the result of ISI, rather than normative, as the participants may have conformed because they believed that the group was right, rather than to fit in.