The Conformity Cost

Starting from a simple experiment

In one of my recent psychology lectures, I rediscovered the well-known conformity study by Solomon Asch, foundational in many ways to social psychology.

The setup of the experiment is quite simple. Participants are individually shown a line and asked to identify which of three other lines matches it in length. When answering on their own, they are correct.

Then the situation changes. Participants are placed in a group of six people. Each person is asked to give their answer out loud, one after the other, in front of everyone else. What the participant does not know is that all the others have been instructed in advance to give the same wrong answer on certain trials, and that they themselves have purposefully been placed in the fifth position.

So by the time it is their turn to speak, they have already heard several identical, incorrect answers. At that point, they are faced with two choices: either trust what they see, or go along with what everyone else is saying.

The surprising result is that about 37 percent of participants followed the group and gave the wrong answer.

Different types of reaction

What I found particularly interesting looking more into the details of the study in is that people did not all conform for the same reason.

Some genuinely started to doubt their own judgement. You hear someone hesitate and say, in effect, “they must be right, there are more of them than me.”

Others knew the answer was wrong, but still went along with it. as they did not want to create friction. “I know they’re wrong, but why should I stand out from the crowd?”.

It shows that there can be a real social cost associated with going against a group, enough at times to outweigh our own judgement or make us reluctant to separate ourselves from the crowd.

What this made me think about

What stayed with me is less the experience itself, but more what it says about how easily our behaviour can be influenced by group dynamics and social normality.

I think this can especially apply to careers. You might look around and see many people following similar paths, moving between similar roles, staying within the same companies, or pursuing similar definitions of success.

I think two level of conformity can happen here. The first is when you simply take for granted that there are no other realistic options. The second is more subtle. You might already sense that another path would suit you better, but internally suppress the idea because no one around you seems to be taking that direction.

Going back to the experiment, it is either not seeing that another answer exists, or knowingly choosing the “wrong answer” because it feels socially easier than standing apart from the group.

Obviously, in real life the "right answer" is much more complex than comparing lines. But we are still deeply influenced by what we see around us, and what others are doing can easily become a reference point, consciously or unconsciously.

When one person is enough

One other part of the experiment I found particularly interesting is that when one another participant out of the six gave the good answer, the result on conformity significantly changed.

The majority was still intentionally giving the wrong answer, but as another perspective existed in the room, the social pressure shifted considerably; far fewer people then conformed to the group.

I find that very inspiring. Sometimes, just seeing one person doing something slightly different is enough to make another option feel realistic and socially acceptable.

Bringing it together

When everyone around you is moving in the same direction, a form of conformity can gradually become both external and self-imposed.

Becoming aware of that does not necessarily remove the influence but it creates a bit more space to ask where our decisions are coming from. Whether the path we are following is one we have consciously chosen, or one we have simply become used to seeing around us.

Looking at my own path today, it is definitely quite non-conventional compared to a few years ago. And part of why I share these reflections is hopefully to show that different paths are possible, and perhaps help loosen that sense of conformity around what we think we “should” be doing.

If this resonates, I would be more than happy to hear your thoughts.

And again, thank you for reading.