1. Size of the Majority Importance of Time Importance of Place & Culture Importance of Modern Technologies

2. Asch manipulated the size of the group 1,2,3,4,8,10 & 15 in the group. Asch = conformity was very low when there was one confederate and one real Ps. Only 3% of the real Ps changing their view Group increased to 3 confederates & 1 real Ps, conformity climbed to 33%. It did not increase much beyond this regardless of group size Many replications of Asch’s study have shown these findings to be robust. Conformity seems to be at its maximum with a 3 to 5 person majority (Stang, 1976).

3. Criticism of Asch’s = work was carried out in the 1950s when conformity was high. Perrin and Spencer (1981) = Asch study reflects the social and historical aspects of 1950s America where pressures to conform were very strong. Replicated Asch study 25 years after Condition 1= 33 male students were used. Condition 2= 20 male students who were on probation were used. Also studied 16 young, unemployed West Indian men with a mean age of 19 years.

4. Smith and Bond (1993) - meta-analysis found variations in conformity. It was highest in Fiji (58%). Lowest in Belgium, an EU country (14%). One explanation is the differences between individualistic & collectivist cultures. Individualistic cultures - autonomy, independence and individuality. People are encouraged to make and stand by their own decisions. In contrast, collectivist cultures attach importance to the social group and interdependence is stressed (Marcus and Kitayama, 1991).

5. Much social interaction today takes place in chat rooms and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Crutchfield - people unable to see each other were less prone to conforming with the majority. Cinirella and Green (2005) compared face-to-face communication & computer mediated communication. Conformity being higher in collectivist cultures. However, in computer mediated communication there were no cultural differences implying conformity is less likely when people are unable to see each other.

6. Found striking differences in conformity: In male students not on probation, conformity was almost non-existent with only 1 in 396 trials producing a conformity response. This suggests that conformity in 1981 was much lower than Asch had originally found in the 1950s. The young men who were on probation showed very similar rates of conformity to those found by Asch in the 1950s studies, implying that conformity still takes place when people are placed with those who have power or authority over them. High rates of conformity were found when young West Indian participants were placed in groups with a majority of confederates who were white. Note that this study was carried out in 1981 when racial equality was much less well established in the UK.