ABSTRACT

Why are ordinary people in a small group context willing and able to say and do things that they know don’t correlate with objective reality? Why do people go along with their peers who have no determinative authority over them, except the influence they permit? Asch orchestrated an elegantly simple experiment to explore the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could influence a person to conform. Using a line judgment task, Asch put a naïve subject in a room with seven confederates who had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task (which comparison line A, B or C was most like the target line). The answer was always obvious. Nevertheless, some naïve subjects said they believed the group’s responses were accurate. Others said they wanted to fit in with the group, and they believed the group was more knowledgeable than they were. Resisting/rejecting norms was enacted by those naïve subjects with transcendent-pointing beliefs and values to which they adhered. The only antidote to this web of control, power and social governance is through having the will and ability to resist, which in Asch’s context means being mindful of one’s freedom.