By Selwyn Duke

Politicians are well known, and oft derided, for tailoring their message to suit the crowd. But it turns out, a new study has found, that there’s a little politician inside of many of us — that is, people will often alter their political positions based on social pressure. This is stating the obvious, of course, but the research also indicates something many will find counterintuitive.

While some believe money trumps all in corrupting man’s endeavors, social pressure can have a greater impact than even monetary incentives.

The study, conducted at the University of Bern, Switzerland, was largely inspired by the uniformity in thought and action observed in government officials and citizens alike with the Covid-19 response. And the Bern researchers sought to replicate famed 1950s conformity experiments performed by psychologist Solomon Asch. In these, Asch would ask an individual to match line lengths as part of a group exercise but, unbeknownst to that person, the other members of his group were study confederates instructed to deliberately give incorrect answers. The result?

A striking number of the subjects chose to parrot the obviously wrong answers rather than buck the group consensus.

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