What does the Asch effect demonstrate about peer pressure?

The experiments revealed the degree to which a person’s own opinions are influenced by those of groups. Asch found that people were willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to conform to the rest of the group.

What is the major conclusion of Asch’s experiment on group pressure and individual judgment?

So what was the conclusion? Asch found that thirty-seven out of fifty test subjects responded with an “obviously erroneous” answer at least once. When faced by a unanimous wrong answer from the rest of the group, the subject conformed to a mean of four of the staged answers.

How did Asch investigate the effects of task difficulty on conformity?

Asch identified task difficulty as a variable that affects conformity. He found that when he made the line judgement task more difficult, conformity levels increased, as the participant was more likely to believe that the confederates were right.

What were the findings of Asch’s conformity experiments?

Asch (1956) found that group size influenced whether subjects conformed. The bigger the majority group (no of confederates), the more people conformed, but only up to a certain point.

How does unanimity influence conformity?

Group Unanimity A person is more likely to conform when all members of the group agree and give the same answer. When one other person in the group gave a different answer from the others, and the group answer was not unanimous, conformity dropped.

How does the work of task difficulty Asch variations demonstrate internalisation?

Asch demonstrated this by increasing the task difficulty of his line experiment. He did this by making the lines very similar to one another in length. The results found that conformity increased in most circumstances except in individuals who were deemed to have high levels of self-efficacy.

What did Solomon Asch contribution to psychology?

Solomon Asch is considered a pioneer of social psychology and Gestalt psychology. 5 His conformity experiments demonstrated the power of social influence and still serve as a source of inspiration for social psychology researchers today.

What is the main purpose of the selection conclusion Asch experiment?

The experiment concluded that people conform for two main reasons: they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is more informed than they are (informational influence).