This is a story about an experiment conducted around the time I was born. The winter of 1968. The place New York. Three researchers – Stanley Milgram, Leonard Bickman and Lawrence Berkowitz picked a 50 ft stretch of a sidewalk in New York for this experiment. At a signal from the sixth floor window of a building opposite the sidewalk, volunteers stepped into the middle of the observation area and looked up at the window andmaintained the gaze for 60 secs. They then stepped away. The researchers observed the behaviour of the passers-by. This action was repeated with 1 volunteer, then 5 volunteers and the 15 volunteers. A total of 1424 passers-by were observed. What did the data show? When 1 volunteer stopped and looked up for 60 secs about 4% of the passers-by stopped and looked up, when there were 5 volunteers 20% looked up and when there were 15 volunteers 40% looked up. This experiment demonstrates how we are so influenced by the behaviour of the people we observe. This is what we call herd mentality. This shows we need “social proof” to adopt new behaviour. Shawn Callahan my partner from Anecdote, Australia, makes two pertinent observations about use or mis-use of social proof in business. When Apple launched the iPod, they knew that buyers would be keeping the iPods in their pockets and therefore not everyone else will be able to identify that it is an iPod that is being used. That’s why Apple decide to make white headphones, so whenever you saw with white headphones you knew that the person was using an iPod. The more the white headphones in a crowd, more social proof that it is cool to own and Apple iPod. When we don’t understand the power of social proof we make mistakes like writing mails to colleagues saying, “Hey no one has yet put their ideas in the idea portal. Please buck up.” For everyone who reads this mail it is “social proof” that you don’t have to send ideas. Where in business can you use this experiment? Business Points ( Tags ) #storytelling #business #bestseller #stories #HerdMentality #socialproof #TippingPoint
