“Being in a minority of one didn’t make you a lunatic.”

In the middle of the 20th century, a social psychologist performed a series of social experiments aimed at gauging the extent of conformity amongst individuals in social groups. A single naïve participant is placed in a room with a significant number of other people who are mere actors in a vision test. They are shown a vertical line and then told to match it (verbally) with its equivalent from a number of lines of different lengths. Prior to the experiment, the experimenter had instructed to the actors to give the correct answers at the beginning but then give the wrong ones most of the time. It would interest you that the ‘’real’’ participant gave the right answers at the beginning even when the actors were giving the wrong answers intentionally. However, after a while of an earful of wrong answers; he started to conform and thus gave wrong answers despite the fact that he knew they were completely wrong. Why? The participant was afraid of being ridiculed.

This experiment was carried out by Solomon Asch and it’s today known as the Asch Experiment.

Humans are social beings hence they have a natural desire to bond with people of usually the same mindset, and to belong to groups they share the same characteristics with. This need doesn’t only lead to a happier life, it also influences behaviours and our choices covertly or otherwise. We do a lot of things simply because a lot of people are doing it and we do not want to be left behind.

 We dress a certain way, not because it makes us feel comfortable and make us look graceful, but because it is the trending style. You talk too loudly and arrogantly because it is how guy men talk.

You listen to songs whose lyrics you do not understand because that’s what your age mates listen to. You use words and phrases whose meanings you can’t truly articulate because those are the words/phrases classy people are using. The bulk of us do not stop to rethink why we do what we do and do not bother about contradictory beliefs because, after all, how can so many people be wrong?

In one way or another we have conformed to the ideals of the majority in our different social groups. We do this to fit in and avoid being taunted as boring and weird as though it is such a bad thing. But for most of us, it is a big deal for we care too much about what people think of us. The advent of social media has perhaps aggravated conformity as demonstrated by the herd mentality wherein people’s opinions become theirs and those with dissenting views are thrown to the pack of wolves. People are no longer confident of their reasoning as society has become the tsar that tells people what to think, but locked up in solitude they realize they think better and make better decisions.

Truly, One of the revelations of the Asch experiment was that people are more likely to stick to the truth and are more confident in their convictions when they are alone or with a few people (perhaps that’s why most exams are written and not verbal). Put those people in large gatherings and the likelihood of being themselves and sticking to the truth becomes slimmer. Madness thrives in huge numbers. This 

Self-expression/self-confidence, truth and individual creativity have become the true victims of conformist ideology. Most people are no longer bothered about disrupting the status quo which has stifled their innate creative talents;  and the truth has become whatever the majority wants it to be. People are no longer confident in their individual thinking abilities; and when they hold contrary beliefs, fear of being ostracized stops them from expressing these beliefs.

Perhaps some persons keep their circle small and live in relative isolation because of this: to avoid the pressure to conform and keep their sanity. The need to encourage people to stand for truth and make rational decisions free from societal pressures cannot be overemphasized as this strengthens individual freedom and progress in the society. So yes, if the majority believes two plus two makes five and you refuse to believe this; you are not mad. If you’re called weird for speaking the truth or having a different rational view, drink a glass of water and continue nonetheless.