Most people abandon clearly correct perceptions to match a unanimous group

Evidence

Imagine you are sitting in a room with several other people; three lines of different lengths are projected on the wall, with another next to it for comparison. Your task is to select that line that is the same length as the reference line. It is a simple task. The lines clearly have different lengths, and you find the right one right away, number two. Before you are asked, the other participants in the study (who are actually co-workers of the study director) state their result. Everyone agrees that it is line number three. How will you answer? Only a quarter of the subjects never change their minds in favor of the group opinion; the majority forgo their own perceptions and go along with the majority. The larger the group, the more likely you are to adjust your opinion. However, if even one more person decides against the group opinion and chooses a different solution, the subject’s courage to insist on his own perception also increases. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 185

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Milgrom law-merchant work: both concern how conformity and reputation shape behavior in groups. Also echoes the Asch experiment as a foundational conformity result across psychology and social-science reading. — connects to: People discount their own sense evidence to conform to group consensus — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 89; Over a third of people deny clear sensory evidence to conform with a group. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 91
• SHARE: Asch’s raw numbers (only a quarter never conform) are a striking detail worth sending to anyone teaching social psychology or studying group decision failure.

Related

• Over a third of people deny clear sensory evidence to conform with a group. (similarity 0.86)
• People discount their own sense evidence to conform to group consensus (similarity 0.82)