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Social proof free instagram likes3/17/2024 ![]() To rule out the possibility that the subjects were simply giving the group answer to avoid looking foolish while still believing their original estimate was correct, Sherif had the subjects judge the lights again by themselves after doing so in the group. Even though the subjects had previously given different estimates, the groups would come to a common estimate. Each subject was paired with two other subjects and asked to give out loud their estimate of how much the light was moving. A few days later a second part of the experiment was conducted. How much the light appears to move varies from person to person but is generally consistent over time for each individual. In reality it was not moving at all, but due to the autokinetic effect it appeared to move. They were then asked how much, in inches, the dot of light was moving. In this experiment subjects were placed in a dark room and asked to look at a dot of light about 15 feet away. The most famous study of social proof is Muzafer Sherif's 1935 experiment. Cialdini's principle also asserts that peer power is effective because people are more likely to respond to influence tactics applied horizontally rather than vertically, so people are more likely to be persuaded by a colleague than a superior. This trend was even more pronounced when the names on the donor list were people that the prospective donor knew, such as friends and neighbors. One experiment which exemplifies this claim was conducted by researchers who joined a door-to-door charity campaign, who found that if a list of prior donators was longer, the next person solicited was more likely to donate as well. Social proof is also one of Robert Cialdini's six principles of persuasion, (along with reciprocity, commitment/consistency, authority, liking, and scarcity) which maintains that people are especially likely to perform certain actions if they can relate to the people who performed the same actions before them. This has been noted in areas such as the use of laugh tracks, where participants will laugh longer and harder when they perceive the people laughing to be similar to themselves. Similarity also motivates the use of social proof when a person perceives themselves as similar to the people around them, they are more likely to adopt and perceive as correct the observed behavior of these people. One study found that when evaluating a product, consumers were more likely to incorporate the opinions of others through the use of social proof when their own experiences with the product were ambiguous, leaving uncertainty as to the correct conclusion that they should make. Uncertainty is a major factor that encourages the use of social proof. Mechanisms Uncertainty about the correct conclusion ![]() Social proof is more powerful when being accurate is more important and when others are perceived as especially knowledgeable. Social proof often leads not only to public compliance (conforming to the behavior of others publicly without necessarily believing it is correct) but also private acceptance (conforming out of a genuine belief that others are correct). This is contrasted with normative social influence wherein a person conforms to be liked or accepted by others. When "we conform because we believe that others' interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action", it is informational social influence. When a person is in a situation where they are unsure of the correct way to behave, they will often look to others for clues concerning the correct behavior. Although social proof reflects a rational motive to take into account the information possessed by others, formal analysis shows that it can cause people to converge too quickly upon a single distinct choice, so that decisions of even larger groups of individuals may be grounded in very little information (see information cascades). ![]() This is referred to in some publications as the herd behavior. The effects of social influence can be seen in the tendency of large groups to conform. Social proof is used in ambiguous social situations where people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior, and is driven by the assumption that the surrounding people possess more knowledge about the current situation. The term was coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book Influence: Science and Practice. Social proof (or informational social influence) is a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in choosing how to behave in a given situation.
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