The roots of the phenomenon lie in psychology and sociology

mamun11

Examples Can social proof be faked? Briefly about the main thing What is social proof and how was it “discovered” Since man is a social being, his behavior and decisions depend on the influence of his environment. The discovery of the phenomenon of social proof, or the principle of “social proof,” explained how people tend to imitate the behavior and opinions of others, especially in uncertain situations. The roots of the phenomenon lie in psychology and sociology.


The concept of social proof first appeared in the book The Psychology of Influence, which was published in 1984. The author of this book, Robert Cialdini, included social proof in a list of seven methods that influence the consumer. In “The Psychology  Europe Cell Phone Number List  of Impact,” the author described several experiments that illustrated the effect of the phenomenon. One such experiment showed that people were willing to donate when the list of participants in a charity program began to contain more names. The effectiveness of this mechanism increased if the list contained the names of those whom the subjects knew. A famous case study of social proof involves annoying laughter in the background of popular television shows.





This idea arose from the sound engineer of the American television channel CBS, Charlie Douglas, in the middle of the 20th century. Douglas discovered that during recordings of programs, audiences did not always respond to comedy jokes in the way producers expected. Sometimes the audience's laughter began too early, sometimes too quietly, and sometimes there was no laughter at all. This situation did not suit Douglas, and he began adding laughter to the recordings. This allowed the audience to synchronize with the idea and catch a “wave of fun.” This method was called "sweetening" - or "sweetening" the audience. With the development of the Internet and social media, the mechanism of social proof has gained global proportions.