Influence
Social proof
When unsure, we watch each other
Influence, chapter 4
Everyone hates canned laughter and everyone laughs more with it. This is about the conditions that make the principle strongest.
What actually happened?
Cialdini's definition: we determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct. Networks keep the laugh track although audiences say they dislike it, because experiment after experiment shows it works. But the principle is not constant, and he names two amplifiers. The first is uncertainty — when we are unsure of ourselves and the situation is ambiguous, we are readiest to accept the actions of others as correct. The second is similarity: people read mainly from people like themselves.
In an unclear situation, people read each other
When the facts are plain, people look at facts. When they are not, people look at each other. The danger is that everyone is doing it at once, so a group with no information quotes itself into an apparent consensus. Newer and murkier makes the loop stronger.
Industry consensus on a new technology forms in weeks. Chase it down and every view traces back to the same two articles and to each other.
Similarity picks the reference group
People do not follow everyone, they follow people like themselves. So a case study persuades in proportion to how closely its subject resembles the listener, not to how impressive it is. A giant's success story is weaker than a peer's.
To move an internal change, use an ordinary team down the corridor rather than a famous company. One invites they did it, so can we.
In a crowd, responsibility is divided by the crowd
The bystander effect runs on two layers: everyone reads everyone else's stillness as evidence that nothing is wrong, and everyone assumes somebody else will act. Cialdini's advice to a person in trouble is therefore very specific. Single one person out of the crowd.
You, sir, in the blue jacket, call an ambulance. The group email nobody answers gets a reply the day it names a person.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you cannot make the call, and you notice you are checking what everyone else does.
Ask first: did these people reach their views independently, or are they also reading each other?
Where it goes wrong: seeing through the principle and then opposing every consensus on principle; or, when you need somebody to act, still addressing the room instead of a name.
Lines to keep
When uncertainty reigns, we accept the actions of others as correct.
You, sir, in the blue jacket, I need help. Call an ambulance.
Same situation, other people are asking
I've heard it so often it has started to sound true.Ten clever people in a room and the answer got worse.Everyone I know is doing it and I can't say why.Everyone is saying the same thing · all 3 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.