Conformity

Most people believe they think independently. That their opinions are their own, shaped by their logic, personal experiences, observation and judgement. But psychological studies show the opposite. In the presence of a group, people often don't trust their own perception, even when the answer is obvious. And this is the core idea behind conformity.

Conformity is the tendency to adjust behaviour and beliefs to match a group, even if the group is wrong. One of the most famous demonstrations of this is the Asch conformity experiments, which reveals how easily social pressure can disregard clear evidence from our own senses.

In the 1950s, psychologist Solomon Asch designed an experiment. The participants were placed in a group and shown a card with a straight line. Then, they were shown another card with three lines labeled A, B and C. Their task was to match the line shown in the first card with one of the lines labeled with the letters lenghtwise. The correct answer was obvious but there was a catch. Everyone else in the group was secretly a part of the experiment and were instructed to give clearly wrong answers. The real participant answered near the end, after hearing other peoples answers.

When participants were alone they almost never made mistakes. But in a group, about 75 percent of participants made conformity based mistakes, giving an incorrect answer just to match the group. Which makes one-third of all responses conformity based. People were willing to deny what they could clearly see in front of them just to avoid standing out.

Conformity is not caused by a single factor. It happens when our brain tries balancing two psychological needs which are the need to be correct and the need to be accepted.

One of the most important findings from Asch's experiment is that people don't just conform because they are unsure of reality. They conform because social reality can be more convincing than physical reality. Even when physical reality tells you one thing, a group of confident people saying otherwise can create internal conflict.

Not everyone in Asch’s experiments changed their opinion to match others. A minority consistently gave correct answers despite pressure. Research suggests resisting conformity is more likely when there is even one other person to agree with you, confidence in your judgement is high or the task is very objective and clear. Interestingly having even one ally in the group greatly reduces conformity. Which shows that conformity is more about social isolation rather than the truth.

Conformity exists because humans have evolved this way. In early human environments being a part of a group was essential for survival since it meant protection from danger, access to resources and fulfillment of social needs. Being rejected from a group could be dangerous. So our brain developed sensitivity to social approval and disapproval. And even today, this system is still active. It is not that people are irrational but it is that human thinking is built for social survival as much as for accuracy. And sometimes those two do not align.