1. Social Influence
Lesson 2

2. Starter
Write on a post-it note something that you remember about Asch.
I’ll collate them on my app!

3. Activity
Make notes on page 6 about the three variations of Asch’s study

4. Asch made the answers very clear.
Difficulty of task
Asch made the answers very clear.
However, when the answer was less clear the levels of conformity increased.

5. Very little conformity with 1-2 confederates.
Size of the majority
Very little conformity with 1-2 confederates.
Under a majority of 3 confederates conformity jumped to 30%.

6. Unanimity of the majority
When the ppt was given the support of one other person conformity reduced to 5.5%.
And, if the lone dissenter gave a different wrong answer, conformity also reduced to 9%.

7. Task: Complete the practice questions sheet (20 minutes)

8. Evaluation of Asch 
The time when Asch’s study was conducted is very important. It was the late 1950s and there was an era of McCarthyism (a period of strong anti-communism when people were scared to be different).
Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated the Asch study in England with students. Out of 396 trials there was only one conforming response!
In a second study with youths on probation as the participants and probation officers as confederates the rate of conformity was similar to Asch – this could be because the risks to the youths on probation for not conforming were high.
What you have to remember is that even though 1/3 of the participants conformed, 2/3 did not. This shows that humans are actually very independent, rather than overly conformist.  

9. Evaluation of Asch
The task Asch asked participants to complete was rather insignificant and the group was made up of strangers.
How well you know the group might have an effect on conformity, Williams and Sogon (1984) found that people who belonged to the same sports club were more likely to conform to each other.
Tanford and Penrod (1986) looked at the conformity rate in jurors.
How can you compare Asch’s study to the situation experienced by a jury?
There are a small number of individuals on a jury, just like Asch’s research.
And what are the implications of conformity in this real- life situation?
People may go along with the group in order to be liked, even though they remain strong in private.  

10. Ethical Issues – what are they?
Can you think of any ethical issues associated with Asch’s experiment?