I can still remember as a teenager my mom reprimanding me for something stupid I did, which was a frequent occurrence when I was in high school. During our conversation (and I use the term "conversation" lightly) she said, "If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?"

"Yes, I would jump." I said with the tone of a teenage caught red handed doing something wrong. "They're probably jumping for a reason."

This is exactly how our brains work when we see social proof in action. If everyone is doing it, there must be a reason.

Check out this video from Candid Camera. It is a great example of social proof in action. Then, please listen to my interview with Robert Cialdini the author or "Influence, the power of persuasion."

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Yep it's interesting to see that the sensation actually has a name, "social proof." Indeed that's the way it is. It's the same way with pigeons, chickens etc. It really gets political also. Smart marketers use this to score. There are actually crews established in forums posing as regular people and giving credit to products, as if the general public applauds them.

I remember hearing that Elvis Presley's promo crew initially paid girls to scream every time he appeared. The rest of the audience would eventually do the same thing. Then the world cheered.

I regret to say you'll find "social proofing" in many diversed industries such as medicine, food, health care, the judicial system, pollotics and so on. This is where it is really pathetic.

It's the same thing with any product, if you can afford to do that. It's a bit shady, in my opinion but it works.

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