Sherif's study demonstrated that when the situation is ambiguous people are likely to conform to other people's behavior. But what would happen if the situation is unambiguous and there is an obvious right answer?

To determine whether people would also conform in the presence of others when the correct judgment was clear and obvious, Solomon Asch tested groups of participants in a simple visual discrimination task involving a series of cards like this one, with a different card being used on every trial. Each participant was asked to indicate which of three vertical lines was closest in length to a standard line and then to call out that judgment so the experimenter could write it down.