TITLE:
Boys, Be Independent! Conformity Development of Japanese Children in the Asch Experiment without Using Confederates
AUTHORS:
Kazuo Mori, Akina Ito-Koyama, Miho Arai, Aiko Hanayama
KEYWORDS:
Conformity, Gender Difference, Social Pressure, Junior High School Pupils
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.7,
May
14,
2014
ABSTRACT:
The Asch
tasks were presented to 20 foursomes of Japanese 7th graders (10
boy- and girl-four-somes) 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 groups— six-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 7th 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.