There’s a striking photograph out of Nazi Germany that has made its way around the globe. In it, a single man refuses to lift his arm in salute as he stands among a sea of Nazis. The photo, taken in Hamburg in 1936, is thought to be of August Landmesser, a man who refused to conform even when the price of doing so might have been his life.
This photograph poses an intriguing question: what sort of character enables an individual to avoid mass conformity, even in dire circumstances?
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Why People Conform
The reason Landmesser was so brave is that we must consider why others generally did the opposite. Following World War II, psychologists set out to investigate the way ordinary individuals would follow harmful ideologies.
At Yale University, psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted the infamous “obedience experiment.” His startling find? Most study participants were happy to hurt other people just because an authority figure instructed them to. During roughly the same period, Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments revealed how readily people sacrifice their own judgment in order to conform to a group.
This is described further by preference falsification a theory by Timur Kuran. It refers to individuals tending to conceal their actual beliefs as speaking out can be dangerous. Under authoritarian systems, such as Nazi Germany or contemporary dictatorships, “going along” in appearance is a means of survival.
So, if the majority conform, what prompts someone like Landmesser to resist the crowd?
The Psychology of Resistance
A landmark study in 2014 by Bègue and others examined personality using the Big Five framework (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism). They found that individuals who were excessively agreeable or overly conscientious were indeed more likely to follow destructive commands.
What this implies is that qualities we commonly consider advantageous being cooperative, being kind, being obedient can also predispose individuals to authoritarian influence.
In contrast, more disagreeable individuals were less likely to blindly obey. They challenged authority, defied pressure, and were more likely to resist toxic social norms.
The Power of Being “Disagreeable”
Being “disagreeable” doesn’t quite sound like praise at first glance. But in some contexts, it could be one of the greatest virtues one can possess.
- Agreeableness smooths out relationships but makes individuals too hasty to comply.
- Disagreeableness permits a person to be able to say “no” while everyone else is saying “yes.”
It was perhaps this very personality characteristic that pushed August Landmesser to refuse to give the salute. His act of nonconformity teaches us that real courage isn’t about following the crowd, it’s about holding one’s ground when the crowd is in error.
Final Thoughts
History has taught us that blind obedience can fan the flames of some of humanity’s darkest pages. Yet it also teaches us about the strength of those who will not bend to the crowd.
The lesson? Kindness and cooperation are vital, yet we must also have the strength to be obstreperous when right. There are times when the bravest thing to do is say “no”.
