Recently, I wrote about how the principle of Social Proof can promote compliance with a direction. Social Proof or Peer Influence (as some call it) occurs when people who are uncertain about a course of action look outside themselves and to other people for clues to the correct action. Sometimes, however, we can fail to appreciate the full power of peer influence, or we might neglect to anticipate its unintended consequences.
Generally, when you want someone to do something, pointing out that the hordes are doing the same thing is a powerful source of influence. Which of the following calls to action following a TV commercial is more persuasive? Operators are waiting to take your call now OR If the phone lines are busy, please keep trying. The latter has almost twice the influence of the former call to action.
The above principle works well when you want to persuade people to do something. But what happens when you want to deter people from doing something, like stealing from the stationery cabinet, padding their expense account, ignoring safety warnings or rubbishing the environment?
To explore how the principle can backfire, Vladas Griskevicius of Arizona University, experimented with different signs in an attempt to deter people from vandalism at the Petrified National Park in Arizona. The park loses more than a ton of petrified wood a month because of theft.
The first sign urged visitors not to take wood and showed several thieves in action. A second sign depicted only a lone thief. The results were unequivocal: visitors who passed the first sign were twice as likely to steal the precious wood as those who passed the second sign.
Within the admonition of Look at all the people who are doing this undesirable thing lurks the powerful and undercutting disclosure Look at all the people who are actually doing it. In trying to alert people to the scale of a problem, you can inadvertently imply, If it’s OK for them, it’s OK for me.
After the Internal Revenue Service (US) announced that it was going to strengthen the penalties for tax evasion because so many citizens were cheating on their returns, tax fraud actually increased in the following year.
So the principle seems clear:
- If you want to influence people to do something, refer to the group.
- If you want to deter people from doing something, refer to the individual.
Above all, remember that the principle of peer influence will be greatest during periods of uncertainty.
Reference
Griskevicius, V., Cialdini, R. B. and Goldstein, N. J. (2008). Applying (and Resisting) Peer Influence. MITSloan management Review, 49, 84-88.
