Psychological Bulletin 1996, Vol. 119, No. 1,111-137 Copyright 1996 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0033-2909/96/S3.00 Culture and Conformity: A Meta-Analysis of Studies Using Asch's (1952b, 1956) Line Judgment Task Rod Bond and Peter B. Smith University of Sussex A meta-analysis of conformity studies using an Asch-type line judgment task (1952b, 1956) was conducted to investigate whether the level of conformity has changed over time and whether it is related cross-culturally to individualism-collectivism. The literature search produced 133 studies drawn from 17 countries. An analysis of U.S. studies found that conformity has declined since the 1950s. Results from 3 surveys were used to assess a country's individualism-collectivism, and for each survey the measures were found to be significantly related to conformity. Collectivist countries tended to show higher levels of conformity than individualist countries. Conformity research must attend more to cultural variables and to their role in the processes involved in social influence. The view has long been held that conformity is to some extent a product of cultural conditions, and it is a stable feature of popular stereotypes that some national groups are conforming and submissive, whereas others are independent and self-asser- tive (e.g., Peabody, 1985). Likewise, the extent to which dissi- dence is tolerated in a society will vary at different points in its history, and several commentators have suggested that the relatively high levels of conformity found in experiments con- ducted in the early 1950s (notably Asch, 1952b, 1956) was in part a product of the McCarthy era (e.g., Larsen, 1974; Mann, 1980; Perrin & Spencer, 1981). Although Asch's (1952b, 1956) seminal research is often in- terpreted as demonstrating that conformity is fundamental to group processes (Friend, Rafferty, & Bramel, 1990), Asch was as much concerned with those factors that enabled individuals to resist group pressure, factors which he saw as rooted in a society's values and socialization practices. That we have found the tendency to conformity in our society so strong that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call White Black is a matter of concern. It raises ques- tions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct. (Asch, 1955, p. 34) He felt that conformity can "pollute" the social process and that it is important for a society to foster values of independence in its citizens. The cultural conditions underpinning conformity have, then, been a long-standing concern and are important for theories of social influence. Yet, as Moscovici (1985) noted, cultural as- Rod Bond and Peter B. Smith, School of Social Sciences, University of Sussex, East Sussex, England. We thank Shalom Schwartz for helpful comments on this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Rod Bond, School of Social Sciences, Arts Building, University of Sussex, Palmer, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 9QN England. Electronic mail may be sent via Internet to R.Bond@sussex.ac.uk. pects of conformity have been relatively neglected, and only two previous reviews (Furnham, 1984; Mann, 1988) have been spe- cifically devoted to them. These issues have been addressed from two perspectives: cross-cultural and historical. Cross-cul- tural studies are typically cross-national comparisons, although studies that have compared different cultural groups within a society can also be included in this category. The historical per- spective is represented by the literature concerned with whether conformity has changed over time in the West, particularly in the United States. This article shows that consistent findings have not emerged from these two bodies of literature but that the methodological basis of most studies is seriously flawed and that little attention has been paid to the cultural variables that mediate conformity. We see the construct of individualism-col- lectivism (Triandis, 1990) as potentially of value in this regard, and" we see meta-analysis as a way of overcoming many of the methodological problems. The body of this article is devoted to a meta-analysis of Asch-type conformity studies where the relationship between conformity and measures of individual- ism-collectivism is explored. We conclude by discussing the de- gree to which studies using the Asch (1952b, 1956) paradigm can encompass the meaning of conformity within different cultures. Review of Studies on Culture and Conformity Comparisons Across Cultures Cross-cultural studies of conformity can be divided into three types: (a) comparisons of subsistence economies, (b) compari- sons of developed economies, and (c) comparisons of cultural groups within a society. Comparisons of subsistence economies are almost entirely due to Berry (1967, 1974, 1979; Berry & Annis, 1974), who has proposed a link between the mode of subsistence and a society's values and social behavior. He builds on work by Barry, Child, and Bacon (1959), who found that the socialization practices of high food-accumulating societies (pastoral or agricultural peoples) emphasized obedience and responsibility, whereas those of low food-accumulating societies ill This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.