One of the most powerful forces of persuasion is “social proof,” the tendency of people to look to the behavior of similar others when they aren’t sure what is correct in a given situation. You can find evidence of social proof nearly everywhere. My Little Rock neighborhood is just one example.
We have scheduled trash pickup every Monday (excluding the frequent Monday holidays) plus recycling pickup every other Monday. That means on Sunday evenings asking the question, “Is this a recycling week or not?”
I sometimes forget. Apparently, my neighbors do too. What often happens is that neighbors tend to look to the streets and driveways around them for clues. One yellow-topped recycling bin rolled to the end of a driveway will spawn a rash of copycats, newly secure in the belief that if most people in the neighborhood believe it’s a recycling week, then that must indeed be the case.
How many hotel rooms have you visited in 2016? Chances are, then, you have noticed one of those little cards in the room asking you to reuse your towels or limit how often the linens are changed. What you might not know is that most hotel guests who are notified about these programs do in fact reuse their towels at least once during a multi-night stay. What some hotel executives don’t seem to know is that they could get even higher participation by using social proof.
A research team (Noah Goldstein, Robert Cialdini and Vladas Griskevicius) tested the potential by changing a few words on that standard sign. When guests were informed that most of their fellow guests had reused towels, they were 26 percent more likely to recycle theirs. In a followup study the team got even more specific. When the message was that most of the guests who stayed in that very same room had reused towels, there was a 33 percent increase in recycling.
Still, a lot of companies ignore the power of social proof. One of the largest hotel chains typically uses a card with the headline “Like we care for you, we care for our planet.” Blah. Imagine the impact of a 26-33 percent increase in recycling across millions of room-nights each year — if the leadership would change only a few words on those ubiquitous cards! A message that preaches what people should do is typically less effective than a message that shares what other people are doing.
Social proof can pull people in a negative direction too. Some people and companies send the wrong signal, unintentionally telling the rest of the world that some behavior is wrong but at the same time saying that lots of people do it. As one example, managers at the Petrified Forest National Park became alarmed at how often visitors would swipe pieces of petrified wood to take home as souvenirs. They tested messages for new signs. For one, the signs simply asked visitors not to steal any of the wood. In another, the signs stated that many past visitors had stolen wood and asked the current visitors not to do likewise. A control group received no message at all. In the areas with the simple “please don’t steal wood” message — a message without social proof — theft rates were less than 2 percent. But in the areas with the “many past visitors have stolen wood” message — one with negative social proof — the rate of theft was nearly 8 percent.
The key for managers is to point out where you are authentically the most popular, fastest growing or highest rated in order to be more persuasive. The proof will be reflected in the power of your message.
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Jim Karrh of Little Rock is a consultant, coach and professional speaker as well as a consulting principal with DSG. Visit JimKarrh.com, email him at Jim@JimKarrh.com and follow him on Twitter @JimKarrh. |