Finding and Conclusions of Asch's Study

Findings & Conclusions of Asch
Asch found in his lab experiment investigating conformity that 99% of participants in the control trial gave a correct answer showing that there was no pressure to conform. In the critical trials the rate of conformity was 36.8% meaning the conformed during more than a third of the trials and 75% conformed at least once, meaning they yielded to group pressure and 25% didn’t conform at all.



When Asch changed the group size he found that there was little conformity when there was a naïve participant and a confederate in the critical trials. When there were two confederates and a naïve participant the rate of conformity rose to 13.6%. However when there was three confederates the rate to 31.8% so adding more confederates made little difference to the rate of conformity.



Asch then added an accurate dissenter that was a confederate that gave the right answer but doesn’t go along with the group’s answers, the conformity levels then dropped to around 10% meaning participants were given more confidence. However, when Asch added an inaccurate dissenter that was a confederate who gave the wrong answer but also doesn’t go along with the group’s answers the conformity levels dropped again to around 10% so it didn’t matter if the dissenter was accurate or inaccurate.



Asch concluded then that was a strong tendency to conform to group pressure when an answer is clear and the results showed that young and intelligent people are more likely to conform and go against what they really believe, which Asch found as a matter of concern.