Social Proof
by Jeff Bond
I like examining the contradictions in commercial advertisements. One that struck me recently was the New York City Domestic Violence Hotline's campaign which reads: Every 12 seconds another woman is beaten by her husband or boyfriend.
I discussed this ad with a friend who is a traditionally-trained social worker in a violence crisis center. We agreed that the ad means to convey that domestic violence happens more often than one might think. But I suggested that the ad was also saying, domestic violence is common. My friend didn't see the difference, so I brought up Robert Cialdini's concept of social proof (included as one of the tools of influence described in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion). When we use social proof, we look at what other people are doing to decide what's appropriate behavior. (When others use social proof against us, they make it appear that others are already doing what they want us to do.)
My friend said that no one would look at this ad (which includes graphic pictures of women with marks of abuse) and say, "Oh, violence, that's a cool thing to do." I agreed that the ad did nothing to glamorize violence, but I pointed out that, with social proof, the behavior being "proved" doesn't have to be glamorized, or moral, or even beneficial; it just has to appear to be done by enough people. Still my friend disagreed. He was only aware of a person's conscious processing; he didn't know yet how much we depend on unconscious processing of social proof to function.
The way I see it, on the one hand, it's unlikely that a person will read the twelve words in that ad and decide it's okay to beat people up. But on the other hand, it's equally true that a person might give different meanings to his violent impulses when he learns, unconsciously, that many people like him act on those impulses. He probably won't consciously decide that violence is good, but he might start to think, unconsciously, that violence is normal. That could have a impact on what choices he sees available to him. I found it intriguing that my friend, who counsels the victims of domestic violence daily, couldn't see the danger in it appearing normalized.
But imagine now that the hotline had used social proof to its advantage. Imagine they said, instead, Every sixty seconds a woman reports an incident of domestic violence. I made up the figure, but the original idea is intact: Domestic violence happens more often than you think. However, notice the new communication: Reporting domestic violence is common. That's a very different message.
* Kevin has a great exercise that he uses in his Shaping Seminar to show how effective social proof is. The last time he used it, he engaged all the students but one (who arrived late) into a conspiracy: One of the students (Robert) was to start behaving strangely in some way after the last student arrived; everyone else was to treat his behavior as normal. When the late student finally showed up, Robert started sniffing people (a very strange thing to do, indeed). At first the late student was taken aback, but after a minute, noticing everyone else treat this behavior as unremarkable, he settled into the same response. He used social proof to navigate his way through a new situation. Cialdini has some more excellent (and sometimes frightening) examples of social proof in his book.