Social proof

Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOC : Social proof

Social proof, aka informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon which 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.

Some common applications of social proof include:

Marketing of products, as with celebrity endorsements and (questionable) customer testimonials
*There are many ways to use "social proof" in marketing to drive customers.

Seduction techniques, as discussed in Erik Von Markovik's "Mystery Method Venusian Arts Handbook".

Social value of unfamiliar people is ambiguous and requires a lot of effort to assess accurately. Given limited time and motivation, other people will often evaluate others based on how surrounding people behave towards them. For example, if a man is perceived to be in a company of attractive women, or is associated with them, then his perceived social value and attractiveness will be perceived to be greater. The implied cognition is this case would be "All those girls seem to really like him, there must be something about him that's high value".

If he is seen to be rejected by many women, his social value will be judged negatively. The implied cognition is then "I just saw him being rejected by many women, there is probably a good reason why they don't like him".

The concept of "Social Proof" and the fundamental attribution error can be easily exploited by persuading (or paying) attractive women to display (or at least fake) public interest in a man. Other people will attribute the womens' behavior as due to the man's character and are unlikely to consider that they are interested in him due to the actual reasons (external gain).

Some men use photos of themselves surrounded by attractive women to enhance their perceived social value. The effectiveness of such tactic without support by other consistent behaviors associated with high social value is questionable.

Public blogs are becoming an instance of Social Proof with sometimes an eager following of widely differentiating people.

References

Cialdini, R. (1993) Influence: Science and practice (3rd edn), New York: HarperCollins

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