  Symmetry breaking--the phenomenon in which the symmetry of a system is not
inherited by its stable states--underlies pattern formation, superconductivity,
and numerous other effects. Recent theoretical work has established the
possibility of converse symmetry breaking (CSB), a phenomenon in which the
stable states are symmetric only when the system itself is not. This includes
scenarios in which interacting entities are required to be nonidentical in
order to exhibit identical behavior, such as in reaching consensus. Here we
present an experimental demonstration of this phenomenon. Using a network of
alternating-current electromechanical oscillators, we show that their ability
to achieve identical frequency synchronization is enhanced when the oscillators
are tuned to be suitably nonidentical and that CSB persists for a range of
noise levels. These results have implications for the optimization and control
of network dynamics in a broad class of systems whose function benefits from
harnessing uniform behavior.
