The pressure to conform can be resisted if there are other people present who are not conforming. As we saw in Solomon Asch's research , the confederate who is not conforming may not be giving the 'right' answer.
Simply the fact that someone else is not following the majority is social support. It enables the naïve participant to be free to follow their own conscience. The confederate acts as a 'model' of independent behaviour. Their dissent gives rise to more dissent because it shows that the majority is no longer unanimous.
