6 Psychology Principle of Persuasion
Principle 3: Social Proof
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — In-Depth Summary
This Book consists of seven chapters, the first chapter introduces the basis for weapons of Influence used by compliance professionals. The next six-chapter builds on top of chapter one (So make sure to read chapter one first). Each chapter introduces one principle of persuasion listed as below:
6 Psychology Principle of Persuasion
Principle 1: Indebtedness
Principle 2: Commitment and Consistency
Principle 3: Social Proof
Principle 4: Liking
Principle 5: Authority
Principle 6: Scarcity
Principle 3: Social Proof
“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.”
The principle of social proof states that one way to determine if something is correct is to find out what others think of correct. The tendency to see an action as more appropriate when others are doing it normally works quite well. As a rule, we will make fewer mistakes by acting in accord with social evidence than contrary to it. The tendency to see an action as more appropriate when others are doing it normally works quite well. As a rule, we will make fewer mistakes by acting in accord with social evidence than contrary to it. Like the other weapons of influence, it provides a convenient shortcut for determining how to behave but, at the same time, makes one who uses the shortcut vulnerable to the attacks of profiteers who lie in wait along its path.
For example, advertisers love to inform us when a product is the “fastest-growing” or “largest-selling” because they don’t have to convince us directly that the product is good, they need only say that many others think so, which seems proof enough.
When our entire belief system are threatened, our sacrifice has to be justified, in order to do it, we seek “comfort” or social proof by persuading others to recognize that our belief is true and correct, when others recognized our belief and effort, we prove that our belief is correct and our effort is not in vain.
“The cold society” in Cities
In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as correct. In the process of examining the reactions of other people to resolve our uncertainty, however, we are likely to overlook a subtle but important fact. Those people are probably examining the social evidence, too. This confusion could lead the entire group to fail to aid a person in need resulting in a cold society. How did this happen? First, with bystanders present, the social responsibility of each individual is reduced, adding to the notion that “Perhaps someone else will give or call for aids, perhaps someone else already has”. So with everyone thinking the same, no one actually does the work to help. Secondly, it seems that the pluralistic ignorance effect is strongest among strangers: Because we like to look poised and sophisticated in public and because we are unfamiliar with the reactions of those we do not know, we are unlikely to give off or correctly read expressions of concern when in a grouping of strangers. Therefore, a possible emergency becomes viewed as a nonemergency, and the victim suffers.
Similar characteristics yield more social impact
Research show that we tend to imitate those around us especially when we view them as a similar person, by age, social class, habits etc. For example, immediately following a front-page suicide story the suicide rate increases dramatically in those geographical areas where the story has been highly publicized. This is because people decide on how they should act on the basis of how some other person with similar characteristic facing the similar problem has acted. Evidently, the principle of social proof is so wide-ranging and powerful that its domain extends to the fundamental decision for life or death.
How to say NO?
Our best defense is to look up and around periodically whenever we are locked onto the evidence of the crowd and recognize when the data are in error. If we can become sensitive to situations where the social-proof automatic pilot is working with inaccurate information, we can disengage the mechanism and grasp the controls when we need to.
Disclaimer
All information above are the summary of the book: “Influence: The Psychology Principles of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini” There are a lot more interesting and eye-opening techniques used by compliance professionals that are not mentioned in this summary. Find out more by buying this book at Amazon.com