In one of psychology’s most famous experiments, Asch had people sit together in groups and answer questions that supposedly tested visual perception. Only one person was the actual subject of the experiment, however. All the others were instructed, in the later stages, to give answers that were clearly wrong. In total, the group gave incorrect answers twelve times. Three-quarters of Asch’s test subjects abandoned their own judgment and went with the group at least once. Overall, people conformed to an obviously false group consensus one-third of the time.
