Solomon Asch

Participants compared the lengths of simple lines while other people in the room deliberately gave the same incorrect answer. Asch found that social pressure could make participants publicly agree with an obviously wrong majority.

No. Responses varied substantially, and some participants consistently resisted the majority. The important result was that a unanimous group produced meaningful conformity even on a clear visual task, not that every person always surrendered judgment.

A partner who broke the group's unanimity sharply reduced pressure on the participant, even when that partner did not always give the correct answer. The finding showed that unanimity, not merely group size, was a crucial part of the effect.

Asch studied conformity to peers making incorrect perceptual judgments. Stanley Milgram's later experiments examined obedience to an authority figure instructing participants to administer what they believed were electric shocks.