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The second law of leadership is the law of influence, as described in John Maxwell’s book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

Because of this, we are breaking down influence as discussed in Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book Influence. We’ve previously looked at the impact of Liking and Reciprocity, this week we will look at the rule of Social Proof.

Social Proof:

Social proof is a heuristic that helps us make decisions by looking at the actions and decisions of others. This is especially true when we are uncertain about the situation.

You see social proof oftentimes in marketing too. Marketers use testimonials and reviews as a form of social proof hoping that it would boost your likelihood of buying. The fact is that it does.

You can see this in your daily life when you go to a new restaurant. The menu sometimes will designate which items are popular with customers. Not only does that make the item more popular among regulars but new customers order those items more frequently than others.

This line of thinking usually goes, “If a lot of people are ordering this, then it must be good.”

This has also been backed up by research studies.

An experiment was done where they showed the participants multiple lines of different lengths on a board. The participants were then asked to pick the line that matched the length of the “control line.”

At first, this was easy for the participants. However, on the third time, the first few participants (who were actually research assistants) all chose the same line that was clearly incorrect.

The actual participant, would more often than not conform to the other “participants” than choose the right answer. Even though the participants knew the answer was incorrect, they would follow the group.

In a more serious scenario, if there is an emergency bystanders often do nothing. While Dr. Cialdini acknowledges that a part of what could be happening is that with so many others around we think someone else will step in.

However, in these situations, bystanders often assume that the emergency isn’t as serious as it really is because if it was then the other bystanders would be reacting too.

As Dr. Cialdini explains, the uncertainty of emergencies causes us to look to others for answers but everyone else is doing the same thing too. Leading to no help being provided. Cialdini’s recommendation is to be very clear and specific with cries for help in these more serious situations.

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