Asch (1956)

Critical trials average conformity rate = 33%

Procedure

123 American male student volunteers

Told it was a study of visual perception

Ppts grouped with 7-9 confederates

Tasked in saying which line was the same as the stimulus

18 trials. 12 where the pseudo-ppts gave identical wrong answers

Findings

1/4 didn't conform

Critical trials average conformity rate = 33%

1/20 conformed on all

1/2 conformed on six or more

Control Group

Control group of 36 ppts tested on 20 trials individually

Made mistakes 1% of the time

Majority of ppts were complying

AO3

Conformity was particularly strong in 1950s America

Perrin and Spencer (1980)

Redid Asch's study in the UK and found 1 person conformed out of 396 trials

Youths on probation as ppts and probation officers as confederates and had similar conformity rates to the original study

Bond (2005)

Limited range of majority sizes

Mori and Arai (2010)

Ppts wore glasses with polarising filters

3/4 wore identical filters so 1 saw the stimuli differently

Results of female participants closely matched Asch's findings

Smith et al. (2006)

Markus and Kitayama (1991)

Conformity is views more favourably in collectivist cultures - 'social glue'

Conformity rate higher in collectivist cultures