Grades 6–8 · Organisms
Why might someone follow a group while still feeling unsure?
When a situation is uncertain, other people’s choices can look like useful evidence. Someone may follow the group because they think the others know something they have missed. This is one route by which social information influences a decision.
In the diagramA public answer need not reveal a private beliefAprivate: unsurepublic answer: Agroup answer: AInvented situation; information, uncertainty and acceptance can influence responses.
A different reason is wanting acceptance or avoiding disagreement. A person might give the group’s answer while privately doubting it. The same visible action can therefore have different causes.
Classic experiments studied situations in which a participant faced a group giving the same judgment. They showed that social pressure can affect responses under particular conditions, while people also sometimes remain independent. Agreement was not a fixed rule for every person.
A public answer alone cannot reveal whether someone changed belief, guessed under uncertainty or avoided conflict. Explaining group behavior requires attention to the setting and what information was available. Following others can be useful, but shared agreement by itself does not establish accuracy.
About this explanation
Starting knowledge: Distinguish a private belief from a spoken answer and understand that people can use others as sources of information.
Sources
- Solomon E. Asch, Psychological Monographs — Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority