In the Asch conformity experiments they put a person in a room together with other seven fake participants. Just like a ring signature, one true mixed up with many decoys Then they show them all a picture with three vertical lines of very obvious different lengths, and ask: ¿What line is equal to the first line, A, B or C?
Even though there’s a clear correct answer, if the fake participants answer out loud first, and say A for example, the real participant answering last, will give the same wrong answer a third of the time. If you run the experiment 12 times, 75% of them conform to the peer pressure at least once.
It proved that we care a lot not to go against the current. We love validation from the group. We don’t want to stand out. It may even prove that some people actually believed they were seeing lines wrong.
Think about it and the way that people would behave on a perfectly transparent spending paradigm. We’d go downhill very fast. We should aim for the right answer, not the most popular one.