Solomon Asch

"We are all susceptible to suggestion, but awareness of our susceptibility is a form of freedom."

"The group does not merely pressure us to conform; it teaches us what conformity even means."

"Truth-telling in the face of contrary consensus requires a kind of moral imagination."

"The experiments show that we are both less rational and more reasonable than we suppose."

"Belonging to a group need not mean believing what the group believes."

"Social conformity is a price we pay for membership in human society, but we need not overpay."

"The majority voice becomes dangerous only when minority voices are silenced."

"We underestimate the loneliness of dissent and overestimate the comfort of consensus."

"To resist social pressure is not to resist society, but to remain conscious within it."

"The group has power over our behavior, but less power over our understanding than we fear."

"Perception is a social achievement as much as it is an individual one."

"The pressure to conform operates most successfully when it is least recognized."

"We are simultaneously more individual and more social than our psychological theories suggest."

"Conformity becomes a problem only when it extends from behavior to belief."

"The experiments reveal that certainty is a social emotion as much as an individual one."

"To stand against the group is to stand in the tradition of conscience."

"Social influence shapes not only what we do, but how we perceive what we see."

"The group exerts pressure most effectively on those most desirous of belonging."

"Independence is not the absence of social influence, but awareness of it."

"We are more honest about our conformity when we understand its inevitability."

"The minority voice in the group serves as a corrective to collective perception."

"To resist conformity is to risk loneliness, but to accept it is to risk self-loss."

"Social pressure operates through our desire for consistency as much as for acceptance."

"The experiments demonstrate that humanity is both more fragile and more resilient than we know."

"Conformity is the default mode of human social existence; nonconformity is always an achievement."

"We are all susceptible to the group's influence, but awareness of this fact is itself a form of resistance."

"The pressure to conform increases as ambiguity increases and decreases as clarity increases."

"To maintain individual judgment in the face of group consensus requires constant vigilance."

"Social psychology reveals that we are neither purely rational nor purely irrational, but socially rational."

"The group voice becomes tyrannical only when individual voices are forbidden."