Not all participants conformed when the majority gave unanimous answers
Type: Limitation
- Not all participants conformed when the majority gave unanimous answers.
- 67% of participants retained their original answer.
- Asch argued this indicated a tendency for participants to show independent behaviour rather than to conform.
- Suggests that majority influence is not as strong due to a larger proportion producing an independent response.
Historical accuracy
Type: Limitation
Study: Perrin and Spencer (1980)
- Asch’s research took place in the 1950s, the USA was affected by McCarthyism at the time.
- Failed to replicate similar results and only had one conforming response in 368 trials.
- Suggests conformity levels change over time and that Asch’s research is now outdated.
Ethical issues
Type: Limitation
- Naïve participants were deceived - they thought confederates were genuine participants.
- The ethical cost should be weighed against the benefits of the study.
- The main benefit was to highlight people’s susceptibility to group conformity and variables effecting it.
Mundane realism
Type: Limitation
- Participants knew they were in a study and therefore may have responded to demand characteristics.
- The line task was trivial so there was no reason for the participant not to conform.
- Naïve participants were in a group, unfamiliar to groups found in everyday life.
- Therefore the study doesn’t generalise to everyday situations where consequences of conformity are important with more direct interactions with groups.
Poor generalisability
Type: Limitation
Study: Smith et al. (2006)
- Asch’s study only focused on one culture, which would have had a negative impact due to important cultural differences which should expect different result in conformity rates.
- Asch used an individualist culture.
- Found that the average conformity rate in individualist cultures was 25%, whereas the average conformity rate in in collectivist cultures was 37%.
- Suggests that culture has an impact on conformity rates, with collectivist cultures more likely to experience higher levels of conformity in comparison to individualist cultures.