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PRESSURE_OF_OPINION

                                             March 22, 2024

                                      PSYCHOLOGY_OF_COMPUTER_PROGRAMMING



Gerald M. Weinberg
"Psychology of Computer Programming" (1971, 1998)


p. 103/4


  "Even where the project is not organized hierarchically, pressure
  to modify judgments of progress can come from other sources,
  particularly from colleagues.  In a classical series of
  experiments, Asch demonstrated how people could be made to modify
  their judgment of the relative lengths of two lines simply by the
  pressure of knowing the opinions of others.  In a typical
  experiment, six "subjects" sit behind a table and are asked to
  state which of two straight lines on a card is the longer.  The
  only true subject is seated perhaps in the second-to-last
  position, and the others are told secretly what answers to give.
  After a few rounds of correct answers, all the "subjects"
  preceding the true subject say that the shorter line is the
  longer.  This creates a pressure on the subject, who can see that
  they are wrong but would have to contradict them all if he is to
  assert the facts of the matter."

  "Some people, it is found, never yield to these pressures, but
  most do. ... Moreover, when interviewed, they *believe* in the
  judgements they made, as we might expect from dissonance theory."


From the bibliography at the end of the chapter:

  Asch, S. E., Studies of Independence and Submission to Group Pressure:
  I. A Minority of One Against a Unanimous Majority, _Psychological
  Monographs_, 7, Series No. 416, 1956

  "This is the classical and original work on opinions and social pressure,
  and it should be required reading for all technical people"




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