# **7.2.2 Asch Conformity Experiment - Line Match 1 Game**

Table 4 presents the results from line match 1 game designed to replicate the Asch (1952) conformity experiments.<sup>63</sup> In the line match 1 game we do not prime subjects (i.e. actors or confederates) but modify the game to have 2 lines of equal size to create a 50-50 chance of picking one of the correct answers (lines B and D). In Table 4 columns 1-3 the outcome is a dummy variable for whether the adolescent was privately correct when matching the line. Column 1 suggests that adolescents were correct in their response 91% of the time i.e. when responding to an enumerator in private, about 9% make a mistake and wrongly match the line. We do not find a _Choices_ treatment effect on the likelihood the adolescent gave a correct response to the line match game in private.<sup>64</sup> To examine conformity we define two outcomes: weak and strong conformity. Where _weak conformity_ is a dummy variable that indicates the adolescent changed their response in public to what was said in private but that response was still correct (i.e. a change from B to D, or D to B). Here we examine whether adolescents in the positions that precede you in the line-up influence your response. We restrict the sample to those adolescents in positions 2-5 as before and interact treatment with the modal public response of those in the preceding positions to adolescent i being the opposite correct answer to i’s private answer.<sup>65</sup> We label this weak conformity as we consider a change to the responses of those in the preceding positions still conformist behavior, even if both answers are correct. _Strong conformity_ is a dummy variable that indicates the adolescent changed their response in public to what was said in private but their public response was incorrect (i.e. change from B or D in private to C or A in public). For the strong conformity outcome we similarly restrict the sample to adolescents in positions 2-5 and interact the treatment dummy with the modal response of those in the preceding positions to adolescent i being an incorrect answer.

The results suggest that 26% of the control group demonstrate weak conformist behavior and 20% demonstrate strong conformist behavior. We find no evidence of a _Choices_ treatment effect on weak or strong conformity for the line match 1 game. Similar to the Asch experimental findings, we find participants are more likely to respond incorrectly when asked to respond in public i.e. 9% incorrectly matched the line in private, whereas in public 20% incorrectly matched the line. Interestingly, we find that the modal response of what adolescents say in the preceding positions is positive and significant for the girls sample (see column 9). That is, adolescent girls were more influenced by the responses of adolescents in the preceding positions and were more likely to change their response to an incorrect answer when most of the responses were incorrect in the positions before them in the random lineup. Since girls are more influenced by the prior responses, this indicates that girls could be more sensitive to social pressure in this game (and possibly more broadly).

> 63See the Appendix for further details on the design of the conformity games.

> 64This is reassuring since we would not expect to find a treatment effect on accuracy.

> 65We exclude those adolescents who gave an incorrect response in private as their public response may be measuring something different to conformity.

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