Solomon Asch's conformity experiments demonstrated that participants were most likely to conform to an incorrect group judgment when:

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The group was unanimous in giving the wrong answer. In Asch's classic conformity experiments (1951), participants were asked to judge which of three comparison lines matched a standard line  -  a task with an obviously correct answer. When confederates unanimously gave an incorrect answer, about 75% of participants conformed at least once, and the overall conformity rate across trials was approximately 37%. The unanimity of the group was the most powerful factor driving conformity. When even one confederate gave the correct answer (breaking unanimity), conformity dropped dramatically to about 5%.

Conformity actually increased as group size grew from one to about three to four members, but adding members beyond that produced diminishing returns  -  so a group of only two ("The participant was allowed to respond privately in writing") would produce less conformity than larger groups. When participants were allowed to respond privately in writing ("The group consisted of only two other people"), conformity dropped significantly because the normative pressure to agree publicly with the group was removed. This finding helped distinguish between informational influence (genuinely being persuaded by others' judgments) and normative influence (going along to avoid social rejection).

Asch deliberately chose a task that was clear and unambiguous ("The group was unanimous in giving the wrong answer")  -  the correct answer was obvious when judging alone. This was methodologically important because it showed that people would conform to a group even when the group was clearly wrong, not just when the task was difficult or unclear. The Asch experiments remain among the most famous studies in social psychology and demonstrate the powerful influence of social pressure on individual behavior, even in situations where the truth is plainly visible.

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