What does it take to say, "I think it's the second line, not the first one"?

There's a famous social science study done by Solomon Asch. Subjects were asked which lines in a set were the same, after being exposed to repeated bogus answers by plants. This study is normally described as being about studying conformity but according to a newsletter article by Kerry Patterson, Dr. Asch was actually more interested in the "one in four subjects who spoke their minds even when confronted with eight other people who disagreed with them". The study was about independence, not conformity. It was unfortunate that conformity ended up being considered more interesting.

This is similar to how Martin Seligman started with learned pessimism and then moved on to the rarer but also more interesting learned optimism.

Kerry seems very concerned about having to be a "geek" to be able to speak up, going so far as to say,

Because if it's true that the vocal few are mostly geeks, I'll clam up and stick with the majority thank you very much.

I'd say that I'd wholeheartedly rather be a geek than to do the wrong thing because of conformist pressure. Let's think about the Milgram experiment and not just matching up lines.

But I would agree that it is unnecessary to be wierd in order to speak up. As Kerry says, "Wierd and angry don't work". The best approach is to speak up in a way that allows people to follow.

And guess what happens when one person finds a way to say that the emperor has no new clothes? The same thing that happened when Asch himself inserted one person to disagree with the majority before the actual research subject was polled. The subjects now expressed their honest views far more frequently because they were no longer alone. One candid, forthright, and skilled person makes it safe for everyone. One person strengthens the entire team, family, or organization.