Do you believe what you see? Probably, at least in most cases, but peer pressure on you can be stronger than you think. Just seven other people can get most individuals to deny what they see and agree with the crowd - even if the crowd is obviously wrong.

Mark Pilkington writes in the Guardian about an experiment where a subject is asked to state which of several lines matches a control line - at first the others in the room (working with the researchers) give the correct answer, but over time they start giving incorrect answers:

Despite the simple nature of the question, more than 35% of the people tested provided an answer that they felt to be incorrect. This has nothing to do with visual impairment: in control experiments, people chose correctly almost 100% of the time, and during the actual experimental sessions, test subjects would remark on how clearly wrong the other people in the room were.

Asch concluded that either the subjects didn't trust their own judgment when confronted with a number of opposing opinions, or they were uncomfortable voicing a conflicting opinion against a majority decision. He concluded that, for them, being accepted was more important than being correct. Crucially, if even one other person agreed with the subject, then the subject was much more likely to make the right decision.

It is difficult for people to stand up and reject what even total stranger tell them, much less what friends say. It is difficult for people to insist on what they are certain is right when everyone around them is telling them they are wrong. Why?

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