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Fear of Trump kept Republicans in line
A case of conformity and badly flawed groupthink
The storming of the U. S. Capitol could have been much worse. The rioters came within feet of Sens. Mitt Romney and Chuck Schumer and searched intently for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They built a gallows and wanted to hang then- Vice President Mike Pence. Trump’s response to them? “We love you. You’ve very special.”
Senators saw this and much more in chilling videos last week. And then 43 out of 50 Republicans voted to acquit Trump of inciting this insurrection, blocking a conviction and the opportunity to ban him from future office. Why do most Republican leaders appear to see the events of Jan. 6 as no big deal, when so much of the country views them as a serious challenge to the peaceful transfer of power?
As a social psychologist, I see a classic case of conformity and groupthink.
In the 1950s, psychologist Solomon Asch recruited candidates for a simple study. Participants were asked to look at a target line and three other lines, and determine which of the three was the same length. When they do it on their own, they make virtually no errors. Asch then examined whether people would give what they knew to be a wrong answer in order to fit in with a group. He recruited male college students in groups of eight, but only one person — the test subject — wasn’t in on the game. Each student gave his answer in front of the group, with the unknowing participant coming last.
Everyone gave the correct answer in most trials. But a few times, some or all of the accomplices were told to give the same wrong answer. How did the test subjects respond? They gave the wrong answer over 30% of the time. Threequarters conformed at least once.
Hard wired to fit in
What’s remarkable is that the participants had no particular need to fit in with the others. This wasn’t a gathering of friends, fraternity brothers or colleagues. Yet they gave answers they knew were wrong in order to conform.
Asch was disturbed. “That we have found the tendency to conformity in our society so strong that reasonably intelligent and well- meaning young people are willing to call white black,” he wrote, “is a matter of concern.”
Are we less likely to conform if the stakes are higher or the choice more public? The answer, as subsequent studies have shown, is no. Humans care deeply about fitting in and will shift their own views accordingly.
In fact, work by neuroscientists reveals that our tendency to follow the crowd is hard wired. Researchers in one study analyzed brain activity when participants believed their music preferences were or were not shared by music experts. People who learned that an expert shared their music preferences showed greater activation in the ventral striatum, the part of the brain that processes rewarding experiences— the same part activated when we win money or eat chocolate.
When we learn that our opinions differ from those of others in our group, parts of the brain that process social learning and rewards are activated. This pattern is the brain’s way of saying, “You’ve made a mistake; please correct it.” As Vasily Klucharev, the lead author on this study, puts it, our brain “signals what is probably the most fundamental social mistake — that of being too different from others.”
The tendency to conform to members of our group, and fear the consequences of calling out bad behavior perpetrated by group members, is deeply ingrained. It helps explain why most people fail to speak up in all kinds of situations — when a fellow student circulates a list rating female students’ bodies, when a friend or relative uses a homophobic slur. And, yes, why so many Republican senators refuse to acknowledge how Trump’s actions led to the events of Jan. 6.
Party ties, fear of rejection
Group conformity is especially common in stressful situations and under time pressure. Psychologist Irving Janis noted in the 1970s that these conditions often lead to groupthink, a decision- making style that prioritizes reaching unanimous agreement over making the best decision. Groupthink helps explain bad choices of all kinds, from NASA leaders who went ahead with the launch of the space shuttle Challenger to Penn State University administrators who covered up child sexual abuse committed by then- assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
We see this tendency most often when group members are similar to one another, isolated from divergent viewpoints, and have a strong leader who discourages deviant opinions. It’s no surprise that GOP senators, who share a strong party identity and continue to fear rejection by Trump, are prioritizing fitting in over doing what’s right.
Unfortunately for us all, this choice could have lasting consequences for our democracy. As President John F. Kennedy reflected after his reliance on groupthink led to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba: “Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive.”
Catherine A. Sanderson, the Poler Family Professor and Chair of Psychology at Amherst College, is the author of “Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels.”
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