Little wonder, then, that the influential French anthropologist Marcel Mauss, in describing the social pressures surrounding the gift-giving process in human culture, can state, There is an obligation...
Consider the results of a study conducted at Northwestern University. Researchers gave online participants information about a pair of sofas we’ll call the Dream and the Titan. The two, manufactured b...
Bad social proof in this situation. Temporarily disconnect automatic pilot.
Anything too stupid to be spoken, he asserted, is sung.
You’re much more persistent when you’re confident in your abilities.
To make it climb, make it rhyme. Within
The world abounds with cults populated by dependent people who are led by a charismatic figure.
The guiding factor in a decision is often not the one that counsels most wisely; it’s one that has recently been brought to mind.
The correctness of an action was not adjudged by such considerations as apparent senselessness, harmfulness, injustice, or usual moral standards, but by the mere command of a higher authority.
Such cases it is vital to remember that scarce things do not taste or feel or sound or ride or work any better because of their limited availability.
Subjects became fonder of the people and things they experienced while they were eating.
Stubborn consistency allows us a very appealing luxury: We don’t have to think hard about the issues anymore.
Once we realize that obedience to authority is mostly rewarding, it is easy to allow ourselves the convenience of automatic obedience.
In deciding whether a possibility is correct, people typically look for hits rather than misses; for confirmations of the idea rather than for disconfirmations.
Good-looking people are aware that other people’s positive evaluations of them are not based on their actual traits and abilities but are often caused by an attractiveness halo
Frequently the crowd is mistaken because they are not acting on the basis of any superior information but are reacting, themselves, to the principle of social proof.
Audiences have been successfully manipulated by those who use social evidence, even when that evidence has been openly falsified.
We like people who are similar to us. This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions, personality traits, background, or life-style.
Since I left for college I have been remiss in writing and I am sorry for my thoughtlessness in not having written before. I will bring you up to
Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.