Key Study

Moscovici, Lage & Naffrechoux (1969)

Effect of group pressure on the modification and distortion of judgements

Procedures

The procedure was that groups of six participants were shown 36 slides after being given a colour blindness test. The task was a simple perceptual judgement that involved saying aloud the colour on the slide. There were two confederates seated in either the first and second position or first and fourth position. In the consistent condition they answered ‘green’ on each trial (irrespective of the colour on the slide). In the inconsistent condition they answered ‘green’ on 2/3 of the trails and ‘blue’ on the rest. There was a control condition in which there were just six naive participants and no confederates.

Findings!!!

The results were that in the control condition only 0.25% ‘green’ responses were given. In the inconsistent condition the number of ‘green’ responses given by participants was only a little higher at 1.25%. However in the consistent condition ‘green’ responses were significantly higher at 8.25%.

Conclusions

Given that the task was a very simple one that hardly anyone got ‘wrong’ in the control condition, Moscovici et al. demonstrated just how convincing a minority with a consistent behavioural style can be.

Evaluation

One criticism of this study is that only female participants were used. Another relates to the type of stimulus material used. As in the Asch experiment it is possible that some participants were responding to demand characteristics rather than the minority. Since it was quite clear what the correct answer was some participants may have worked out that the minority were in fact confederates of the experimenter.

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