Everyday Evil, Part 4: Conformity

Christians often tout community as if it is an unmitigated good. Community is a good. Being with and in relationship with others is a great thing. But there is a dark side to community as well. So we need to realize that community is a relative and contextual good.

We all know some of the bad things associated with groups. Sometimes it is a mindless herd mentality. Sometimes it is groupthink. But sometimes it can be more sinister.

The most famous studies concerning group conformity were conducted by Solomon Asch in 1953. Asch had subjects observe lines of differing lengths on a paper and to state which of these lines was the same size as a target line. The responses took place within a group setting where the subject could hear everyone else's responses. What the subject didn't know was that all his/her fellow "subjects" were really in on the study.

During the trials the fake subjects began to give obviously wrong answers by saying that a given line segment was"the same size as a target line that was obviously longer or shorter. The question asked by Asch was this: When the group gives the obviously wrong answer will the subject go with what they are actually seeing or with the group? Will they conform and give an obviously wrong answer?

The answer: Most people conform. Despite seeing the facts with their own two eyes. The YouTube clip is a modern-day replication of the study. So you can see the effect for yourself.

This tendency to conform is not necessarily a bad thing. But it does reveal a few important things about the dynamic of everyday evil:

1. We have a very, very strong need to conform.

2. Consequently, our moral resolve is highly contextual depending upon the group pressures surrounding us.

3. Thus, if the group gets going in a bad direction normally decent folk can get swept away in the conformity rip tide.

All this is to say that most of the evil in the world is committed by groups. Very little evil is committed by rouge individuals. True, there are a few sociopaths among us. But most of the evil we see, historically and today, is done by collections of people.

But none of this is new, is it? As it says in 1 Corinthians 15:33:

"Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."