Five Weeks Down, Seven To Go
Author: Stacy28 Sep
So, have I updated all of you on my marketing class lately? I don’t think so…so here are the highlights in a nutshell.
- One of my teammates sent me an email, telling me she didn’t like my “tone” and I was too “harsh” when I chastised her for completely failing to show up for a scheduled meeting. By the way, she’s the meeting leader.
- It should be permissible to refuse to give someone an MBA because he or she overuses the words AWESOME and HILARIOUS and ends every statement with multiple!!! exclamation!!! marks!!!
- Influence is a wonderful thing…and I’m discovering I have a lot of it.
- When you tell people you want to get an “A” on the project, they assume you’ll do all of the work and they won’t have to do anything except enjoy the ride. Oh, the AWESOME HILARITY when they find out that isn’t the case.
- My quiz wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be - I actually think I overstudied for it. We’ll find out in a couple of days.
One of this week’s “learning objectives” was the concept of social proof. Here’s the Wikipedia definition:
Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in ambiguous social situations when people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior. Making the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation, they will deem the behavior of others as appropriate or better informed.
I know for me when I was a little girl, I had training wheels on my bicycle and nothing my parents did could get me to take them off. We moved to another city, and I noticed I was the only 6-year old who had training wheels on her bike. They were off by the end of the day, as I realized it was time for me to be a big kid like all the others.
Another example…several years ago, CU and I were driving down a busy street near our home and saw a dog wandering in the middle of the road. We stopped our car and went to try to get the dog, but everyone kept speeding around us. Eventually, a second car stopped to help. Once that second car stopped, we were amazed at how everyone else fell in line to try to help out this dog.
I asked this question on my class discussion board, but ya’ll are more fun…so, what sorts of examples of social proof have you witnessed - or found yourself part of? I always like to think of being back in high school, when if one friend was mad at you, it wasn’t a big deal. If two were though, all of a sudden the whole gang joined in and didn’t talk to you for two days.
Don’t worry…I’ll eventually get around to blogging about TV last night. 
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2 Responses for "Five Weeks Down, Seven To Go"
Well I knew I was in trouble whenever two or more girlfriends were mad at me… because, well. They weren’t supposed to know. (I jest, I was practically a priest (in the Thorn Birds model, natch.))
I keep thinking that social proof will get my son’s thumb outta his mouth, but as his younger brother also sucks his thumb, I fear I’ll have to bind both of their arms to their sides. Problem is, the younger is so bendy, they’ll both soon be sucking their toes.
One of my favorite examples is in Dead Poet’s Society where Robin Williams has them walking in the courtyard and the guys start walking in the same pace and everyone’s clapping to the same rhythm. It’s so true. Have you ever noticed when you’re in a crowd that’s clapping (like at the end of a play) and suddenly everyone’s clapping at the same time?
Also, if you see any girls under the age of 22, you’ll notice that they’re all dressed almost exactly the same. Same type of shirt, same type of shorts, same type of sandals, hair flopped up in a messy way — the only real difference is the colors and even they aren’t usually that drastically different.