The ruling party’s ‘unanimous pressure’

[한겨레 프리즘] Taekyu Kim | political team leader
American social psychologist Solomon Ash conducted an interesting experiment in 1951. He showed the eight people who entered the lab a piece of paper with one line drawn on it, and then presented three additional line segments, each with a different length, and asked them to choose the same length as the previous line segment. Easy questions with clearly visible answers were repeatedly presented, and from the third question, many of the participants started to give the wrong answer. In fact, 7 out of 8 participants in this experiment were ‘actors’ and only 1 was a real test subject. When the actors all gave the wrong answer as promised to the research team, the test subject was confused at first, but followed the will of the majority. Of the 123 subjects, 94 (76.4%) gave one or more incorrect answers. In the 12 repetitions of the test, 6 people gave all the wrong answers. The total incorrect answer rate of 1476 questions taken by 123 people was 36.8%. It was an experiment that clearly showed that they easily succumbed to ‘group pressure’. Twenty-nine (23.6%) of the respondents answered the correct answer steadfastly without succumbing to the ‘silent compulsion’ to give the wrong answer. No matter what anyone says, they say what they say.

Line segments presented in Solomon Ash’s experiment. It was clear that number 2 of the comparison lines on the right had the same length as the first line, but when the majority pointed to numbers 1 and 3, many of the experimenters followed them and chose numbers 1 and 3 as answers. Namu Wiki capture

At the People’s Power National Convention, which ended on the 8th, disagreements were not tolerated, and the pro-Yun Seok-Yeol line won a complete victory. Candidate Ki-Hyeon Kim, who pledged to ‘nominate Yoon Shim’ in the general election next year, was elected as the new representative with a majority of votes in the first primary. Supreme Commissioner Jo Soo-jin, who has settled in the leadership, said, “Why do I have to be instructed by (Lee Jun-seok) the party representative? There is a history of emphasizing loyalty to President Yoon, saying, “I will only listen to the story of the (Presidential election Seok-yeol Yoon) candidate.” Tae Yeong-ho, a former diplomat from North Korea, praised the military tension between the two Koreas as “a one-on-one victory for President Yoon Seok-yeol” and emphasized the ‘pro-Yun identity’. Supreme Commissioner Kim Byeong-min was a spokesperson for the Presidential Election Committee, and Jang Ye-chan, the Youth Supreme Commissioner, was President Yoon’s ‘Youth Advisor No. 1’. On the other hand, ‘Cheon Ah Yong-in’ (Cheon Ha-ram, Huh Eun-ah, Kim Yong-tae, Lee Gi-in), who were willing to fight against Yoon Haek-gwan (a key official of President Yoon) and would not hesitate to speak bitterly, was defeated. Their failure was a foreseeable result, as the purpose of electing a new leadership, which began with the discipline of Lee Jun-seok, was to form a ‘pro-Yun complete body’. The mainstream of the people’s power removed the 30% reflection rule in public opinion polls to block the ‘Lee Jun-seok path’, which became a winner in public opinion even though it narrowly lost in party sentiment a year and nine months ago. The runoff voting system introduced ‘advancedly’ was to block the possibility of a non-mainstream coalition while pro-Yoon faction candidates were crowded. After the pro-Yoon candidate was organized into one person, Ki-Hyun Kim, a ‘collective lynching’ was applied to prevent former Congressman Na Kyung-Won from running. It was actually a scripted drama. Members of the People’s Power Party also actively responded to the’planning’, which was meticulously or violently conducted. It seems that they decided that unity centered on the president is necessary to win the general elections following the change of government. If President Yoon and the Lee administration are on the right path, it is better to stick together. However, △ pushes forward the humiliating solution to forced labor despite opposition from public opinion △ there is no sense of the problem in the “personnel disaster between prosecutors” △ “it has become clear what to do in the future” is in need of a brake on President Yoon’s runaway. Candidates Ha-ram Cheon and Cheol-soo Ahn seemed to have a ‘different voice’ for President Yoon, and 38.35% of the party members sympathized with them (14.98% Cheon Ha-ram and 23.37% Ahn Cheol-soo), but they have no opportunity to speak in the future. Seeing that Cheon Ah-yong-in is criticized as “a hooligan who ruins the game” (Chief Commissioner Kim Jae-won), there is a high possibility that voices calling for change will be further suppressed. In Ash’s ‘Line Segment Experiment’, a reversal occurred when one of the actors who participated in the experiment gave the correct answer. When everyone gave the wrong answer and pressured unanimously, the incorrect answer rate, which was 36.8%, dropped to 5%. In the power of the people, a new leadership is completed when one appointed supreme council member joins. Could there be even one person who would say no to no? dokbul@hani.co.kr