Normative social influence
Unanimity
### Unanimity

When a group is unanimous in its support of a norm, an individual feels greater pressure to follow suit. However, even a small break in unanimity can lead to a decrease in the power of such normative influence. In Asch's study, when even one other confederate dissented from the majority and provided the correct answer, the participant answered incorrectly on fewer trials (about a fourth less). In addition, participants experienced positive emotions towards such dissenters. A similar reduction in conformity even occurred when the dissenting confederate provided an answer that was false (but still different from that of the majority).

In some versions of the experiment, Asch had dissenting confederates eventually rejoin the majority opinion after several trials; when this occurred, participants experienced greater pressure from normative influence and conformed as if they had never had the dissenter on their side. However, when the conditions were altered and the dissenting confederate left the room after several trials, the participants did not experience a similar pressure to conform as they had when the confederate rejoined the majority—they made fewer mistakes than they had in the condition where the confederate rejoined the others.


How does this affect the participant's behavior and conformity?