Solomon Asch confirmed himself to be correct about his conformity theories in a series of experiments that took place in the 1950s. People were told that they were participating in a study of simple perceptions and were put into groups without knowing that they were composed of stooges. They were then asked to make comparisons between lines drawn on a set of cards, where it was clear what the right answer was. He found that people would often choose the wrong option even when the correct one was clearly visible.
The ‘real’ participant was asked for their answer after most of the group, and then after six trials, the stooges began to give deliberately wrong responses. In more than a quarter of the trials, the participant gave an obviously incorrect response in order to conform to what they thought were the majority opinions. Three-quarters of the participants did so, at least once. Asked afterward, some participants admitted that they had realized their answer was wrong but go along with the crowd because they didn’t want to seem different or foolish to the others. Others, however, claimed to have no idea that they’d given a wrong answer.
