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Should People Conform In An Unambiguous Situation

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Should People Conform In An Unambiguous Situation
Asch criticised Sherif’s experiment for not showing whether people would still conform in an unambiguous situation. Asch conducted his own study by asking 36 people to match the target line with one of the comparison lines. In all trials they got the answer correct, this was an unambiguous task. He did this to see whether the participants would conform to the incorrect majority even when the right answers were always obvious. This experiment lacks ethics as it lacks informed consent, deception and protection from harm could be an issue for those with low self esteem who may have been affected. It lacked ecological validity as it was lab controlled and not realistic. Also they were all male students around the same age, race and nationality.
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