rmity should be measured in terms of the individuals tendency to agree with other group members who unanimously give the wrong answer when the solution is obvious. If people yield to group pressure under these conditions then this is a much stricter test of conformity. In 1951, Asch performed the Asch paradigm where he gave participants the simple perceptual task of matching one line (standard line) with another line (comparison line); each presented on a separate card. They had to say which of A.B or C was the same length as the standard line. A group of 36 control participants made three mistakes when tested 20 times. In the original experiment students were tested in groups of 7 9 in which only one person was a real participant, the others being confederates of Asch who had been instructed to give the wrong answers. They were seated either in a straight line or round a table so that the real participant was the last to answer. In the first two trials (neutral trials) the confederates and the real participant gave the correct answers. On the third trial the confederates agreed on the wrong answer. During the experiment there were ii additional critical trial and six neutral trails. The basic conformity rate was 32 %, which meant that on average participants gave the wrong answers on one third of the critical trials by agreeing with the confederate majority.However, this overall conformity rate of 32% reveals large individual differences when 25% showed no conformity at all and remained independent throughout the critical trials. 47% gave between one and seven incorrect answers and 28% gave eight or more incorrect answers making 75% who conformed at least once. Only 5% conformed on every critical trial.The Asch studies played an influential and fundamental role in establishing conformity theories and stimulated a great deal of research following the studies. In 1974 Larsen found lower conformity rates than Asch had found a...
