... answer. Asch also found that only 26% of real subjects never conformed. So why did so many people conform? The main reason being social influence. Participants did not want to be the odd one out so to speak. This is a case of public compliance rather than private acceptance. The findings of Asch's studies are drawn from experiments in laboratory settings. The tasks involved as well as the surroundings are not what you would expect to find in everyday life. Due to this Asch's studies were criticised for having low ecological validity. If an experiment has little relationship with the outside world, the experiment will have low ecological validity. However Asch's experiment illustrates that if people conform in this type of setting surrounded by complete strangers, it shows the power of group pressure. Therefore because similar situations are bound to take place outside the experiment, Asch's study is ecologically valid in ...

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