To investigate what if participants were exposed to normative social influence in a solution were there could be no doubt about the correct answer to a question? How would they conform?

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Conformity- Research Sheet

Asch (1956)

Aim- To investigate what if participants were exposed to normative social influence in a solution were there could be no doubt about the correct answer to a question? How would they conform?

Procedures- Asch designed a simple, straightforward and unambiguous task. Participants were presented with two cards. On one card was a single 'standard' line; on the other were three ' comparison' lines. Participants were asked to judge which of the comparison lines was equal in length to the standard line. Various pairs of cards were used.

* Controlled- a controlled group of 37 participants were given the task. A control group is used for comparison with the experimental group. The factors expected to influence the experimental group's behaviour - in this case pressure to conform- are removed. The participants were simply asked to judge the comparison lines without any social pressure to conform to the judgments made by other people. Thirty-five members of the control group made no errors, one made a single error and one made two errors. This indicates that the task was straightforward and unambiguous.

* Experimental- there was only one participant, the rest were