Conformity in the Asch situation: A comparison between contemporary British and US university students

In a cross-cultural study of the Asch effect, the present study found contemporary British and US university students did not differ significantly in their responses to unanimous peer-group opinion. While the number of obtained error responses was significantly less that those reported by Asch (1951, 1952, 1956), it was also significantly greater than zero. It is suggested that, although the Asch effect has weakened over the past 30 years, it remains an observable minority behaviour: that is, there is still an identifiable small set of university students who will conform to group pressure in the Asch situation.