A group of students working together to develop an experiment for a research methods class wanted to study conformity using the original Asch (1955) paradigm. This is a famous social psychology experiment in which participants were given a card with a picture of a line and were asked to select, from a set of line drawings, the line that was the same size. The participant was not alone. He or she was brought into a group of study confederates, peers who were part of the experiment. All of the confederates announced their choice. Sometimes their choice was correct and other times it was incorrect. Asch was interested in whether the research participants would go along with or conform to the group even when they were wrong.

We will review what our research team did in the replication and discuss alternative strategies.

Why Is This Important?
Folk wisdom says that the best way to learn is by taking risks, making mistakes, and learning from our mistakes. While this may be true in life, it may not be the most efficient approach for science. In this workshop, we’re trying to help you avoid common pitfalls in student research. Learn from others’ mistakes…it takes less time.