Crowd

Imagine you’ve been invited to take part in a behavioral study. The people conducting the test tell you it’s a simple exercise to determine our ability to perceive objects.

As you enter the room, there are seven other participants. Everyone is cordial. However, there is a bit of tension in the room. Tests are awkward, right? I wonder what they will ask. I hope I get it right.

The host steps into the room with two cards. The first card has three lines, each with a corresponding letter code—A, B, and C. The host raises a second card with a single line. He says, “This line matches one of the three. One at a time, please call out the letter of the matching line.”

No mistaking it, it is clearly C. A is far too short, and B is way too long. When he held the cards together, it remained obvious the correct answer was C. Starting at the front of the room, he asked, “Which of the three does the single line most closely match?”

You say C in your head simultaneously, but they say “A.” What? They had no waver. They were confident. They said it was A, but there is no way that is right. The host goes to the next person. Expecting it to be corrected, you are surprised when they also said “A.” And the next, and the next, and each person until it is your turn. Now, you are thinking, I was certain it was C, but everyone in this room is saying A. What am I missing? How do you think you’d respond?

According to the research in the Asch Conformity Experiments, 75% of all people follow suit with the wrong answer. People who were certain they were right changed their answer. Of course, the researchers were being tricky. They hired actors to play all the other participants. Actors that unanimously gave the same wrong answer. The answer you knew was wrong all along, yet three out of four people ultimately went with the crowd.

The pull to follow the crowd is strong—the desire to blend in. To not stand out. Perhaps I even convince myself, “They must know something I don’t.” So I follow them. I convince myself that the size of the crowd must equal correctness.

Am I willing to say what is right, regardless of the majority? Can I find the courage to stand out when necessary? Will I be the one to speak up?

Be curious, be kind, be whole, do good things.