PS270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Social Proof, Social Comparison Theory, Blood Donation
Document Summary
The principle that people determine what is correct by finding out what others think is correct. If available, people prefer to use objective cues to evaluate. If not available, people engage in social comparison. When socially comparing, people prefer to compare to similar others. Car dealers target next-door neighbours of recent customers. Advertisers provide testimonials and statements of popularity regarding products. Examined compliance with money donation to a charitable cause. Experiment 2: examined agreement for blood donation. People were presented with names of previous donors (social proof) or no list provided (control) Subsequent experiment showed longer lists produced more compliance than short lists. Half of participants found wallet with standard american english letter. Other half found wallet with letter in broken english from immigrant. Suggests social proof stronger for similar others.
