The Super Power of Social Proof

Here’s the full text of my fourth Toastmaster’s speech:
Hook ‘em:
Would you like to have a greater impact and influence on the people around you?  No resource is more powerful or accessible than the persuasion of your peers and people you respect.  We are social creatures.  The opinions of others matters.  Scientists call this social proof.   Let’s dive deeper to define social proof, explore some examples, and then review how you can use social proof to influence others.
Definition of Social Proof
Social proof is simply the behavior of others.  We use the behavior of others as a guide in our decision making.  It’s a shortcut to help us choose.  It’s that and more.  To be accepted, respected and connected is deeply human.  Let’s run a thought experiment to show this.  Suppose someone yells “FIRE” in a movie theatre.  If others get up and leave, you likely will too.  If others stay seated, will you?  Churches salt collection plates and video stores put old movies in return stack to influence your choices.  On the tragic side, suicides in news often cause a rash of suicides.  People find the idea of suicide more legitimate.

Social proof compels changes in behavior, attitude, and action even when it doesn’t match our true feelings, style or thoughts.  We conform because we think everyone else is must be correct, we fear social rejection, or we are influenced by culture.  We tend to do what others do.  An extreme example of this is Hitler’s Germany.   Scientist Dr. Milgram wanted to find examples of the freaks and fundamentalists who were like the Germans who sent Jews to the gas chamber.  He devised an experiment to identify these people.  One person asks questions of another.  The tester applies an electric shock when given wrong answers.  As the shock voltage increases the subject progresses from moans to screams to silence.  Instead of finding the few freaks, a full 65% of the testers sent the maximum voltage.  Dr. Milgram went looking for freaks and found us.  Further, 90% went max if they knew one other tester had done so.  Take heart though.  The percentage fell to 10% if one other tester refused.  This is the super power of social proof.

There’s a group of people who have extra influence on us.  They are called the opinion leaders.  An opinion leader is a knowledgeable and trustworthy member of the community who is respected and connected.  13% of us are opinion leaders and 85% of the rest us will not adopt anything until the opinion leader does.  The message is no more important than the messenger.  Consider the young agricultural scientist who tries to convince farmers to use a new strain of corn.  Most farmers are not going to risk their crop on the word of a college city-slicker who doesn’t dress or talk like they do.  The scientist would be more effective if he sought the opinion leaders among the farmers and persuade them first.
How to Use Social Proof
If you are convinced of the power of social proof, let’s look at three ways to put it into practice.  We can start with ourselves, then our peers, then our leaders.

Even if you don’t care to persuade others, you can enlist social support for yourself.  Share your goals with friend, encourage friends to check on your progress, and to top it off, team up with someone.  Your diet program will be much more successful using social support.

You can become an opinion leader yourself.  Become knowledgeable, be trustworthy, and be generous with your time.  These are qualities of an opinion leader.

You can also learn to say NO to social proof.   Make a conscious effort to detect counterfeit social evidence such as canned laughter and actor endorsements.  Make an aggressive counter attack: Don’t buy product and write letters condemning this fake social behavior.  Also look up and around periodically to avoid being locked into groupthink (don’t be a buffalo blindly stampeding over a cliff)

Next, let’s put peers into practice for us.  The Bible advises us in Deuteronomy to build a coalition. The word of one friend may not be enough; you need a coalition of 2-3.  Give instructions to your team in a group instead of individually.  The larger the group, the better: conformity goes up.  The greater the familiarity the better: we trust people who are like us.  Look for peers who are behaving in the way you want.  Use peer power whenever possible.

Last, two types of leaders are important.  Engage both the chain of command and opinion leaders.  Spend more time with these leaders.  Listen to concerns, build trust, and be open to their ideas.  To find opinion leaders, simply ask people to make a list ranking the most influential/respected among them.  The names most frequently listed are opinion leaders.  One final tip: work with these leaders to make the undiscussables discussable.  If people are scared they won’t change.  Take the example of a hospital that wanted to reduce infections.  They found that some doctors would fail to gown up, glove up, and wash up. Nobody would report these doctors for fear of retaliation and law suits.  To institute change here you would gather data on the problem, present to the executives and opinion leaders, and then discuss inevitable consequences.  It must be clear that the topic is open for discussion.  Only leaders can remove the fear.

Big Conclusion
My study of influence started because I wanted to be a better leader at work.  But in closing I’d like to share a personal story on how social proof has changed my life.  In the past I’ve not been much of a volunteer.  The place I work now has a culture of supporting good causes.  One thing they do is build homes for the poor in Juarez, Mexico.  I’ve now joined them and helped to build homes for two families.  It gives me a renewed appreciation for my life in America.  I feel incredibly good when I am able to help others.