In the present experiment, we replicated Asch's seminal study on social conformity without using confederates. We adapted a presentation trick in order to present two different stimuli secretly to groups of participants to create minorities and majorities without utilizing confederates. One hundred and four Japanese undergraduates (40 men and 64 women) carried out Asch-equivalent tasks in same-sex groups of four. In each group, we adapted the fMORI Technique to present the tasks such that one person (minority participant) observed different stimuli than the other three people (majority participants). The same nine stimulus sets that Asch had used were carefully reproduced as PowerPoint slides and projected onto a half-transparent screen. As for the critical tasks, the top part of the standard lines appeared in either green or magenta so that two groups of participants would see them differently when they wore two types of polarizing sunglasses that filtered either green or magenta to make the lines appear longer or shorter. A post-experimental questionnaire confirmed that no participant among either the minority or majority viewers noticed the presentation trick. The results showed that, in line with Asch's basic findings, the minority women participants conformed to the majority. However, our study produced two different results: While minority women conformed, minority men did not. Contrary to Asch's findings, the frequency of conformity of minority participants was almost the same regardless of whether the majority answered unanimously or not.
The Asch tasks were presented to 20 foursomes of Japanese 7 th graders (10 boy-and girl-foursomes) by means of a presentation trick so that one participant observed different stimuli than the other three. The response order was randomly assigned and the third responders observed different standard lines from the other three children. The results showed that the minority children who had observed different stimuli tended to conform to the majority. Combined with the previous results utilizing the same experimental procedure with two different age groupssix-year old children and undergraduates-a clear tendency was found for Japanese boys becoming more independent as they matured. Six-year-old Japanese boys conformed considerably, while male undergraduates seldom conformed, and the 7 th grade boys in the present study showed a moderate level of conformity. On the other hand, Japanese girls showed the same conformity frequencies regardless of age.
Without using confederates, Mori and Arai (2010) replicated the Asch results with 40 male and 64 female Japanese undergraduates in same-sex groups of four. One from each foursome wore a different type of polarizing sunglasses so that he/she observed the standard lines differently form the other three participants, who played the same role as the majority in the Asch experiments. As expected, the minority participants tended to conform to the majority. There was a gender difference: the female minority participants conformed, but the males did not. The present study reported the qualitative findings from analysis of the responses on a questionnaire administered in the Mori and Arai experiments. It revealed that female participants who conformed more than the males were less confident and felt more isolated and anxious than the males.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.