Bandwagon Effect

NICK
Intro: Begin with silly band story, discuss how I was hooked onto buying a product I
didnt need or truly want. Bought it just because everyone else had them.
1. A psychological phenomenon in which people will override their own beliefs and
views and do something primarily because other people are doing it. Occurs
when people believe their interests are served by joining a fashionable
movement. Most people like being associated with the winner and believe the
general public is the winner. (Investopedia, 2015)
2. The term bandwagon comes from the vehicle that drives the band in a circus
around in order to drum up popular support (Colman, 2008)
1. It is seen in many aspects in our lives other than small group involvement
such as in consumerism, sports, and social media
b. Thesis: It is our innate desire to follow society into a bandwagoned group. Within
a group, its best to fight the temptation to join the bandwagon and instead stay
true to your actual beliefs in order to promote a wider array of viewpoints.
Preview: Were gonna be talking about some examples of bandwagon, Aschs
bandwagon experiment, and how to combat bandwagoning in small groups
Transition: Many people may buy a product, express an opinion or follow a trend
because it is popular among the majority of people. This tendency can be observed in
trends involving favorite sports teams and athletes.
Bandwagon in sports
NICK
Most valuable franchises in major sports (Yankees, Lakers, Cowboys/Patriots)
Yankees lead MLB with 27 world series wins, Lakers have second most
championship wins with 16, one behind the boston celtics, Dallas and New
England are tied in first with 8 super bowl wins (Landofbasketball, 2015),
(NFL.com, 2015), (MLB.com, 2015)
Lebron James (people love/hate Lebron)
2011 Lebron leaves Cleveland Cavs to go to Miami
2015 Lebron goes back to Cleveland
After being 16th in the league in attendance the year before, Cleveland was
number two, despite having a losing record midway through the season.
(ESPN, 2015)
Transition: After seeing an example of bandwagon in effect, the question to be asked is,
why does this happen at all?
SUSAN
4. Why does it happen?
a. People feel the need to belong and feel left out if they don't join the
bandwagon
b. In a small group sense, people may have some evaluation apprehension
if they don't relate to their peers, even if they have different ideas or views
c. It can occur in small groups such as a family, group of friends, classroom,
or in the workplace but can also been seen on a large scale such as in
politics and consumerism (Dvorsky, 2013)

d. It is sometimes easier to go along with a trend (bandwagon) than fight it

Spiral of Silence theory-- says people are more likely to stay quiet if they
are a minority
e. 5 main reasons why people conform:
i.
Correctness- people want to be correct and accurate in judgments
especially in social situations
ii.
Social Acceptance- High pressure to fit in and conform in group
settings
iii.
Group Goals- When working towards a group goal, group
members are likely to conform after developing group norms
iv.
Social Identity- depends highly on culture but people value their
social identity and what other people think
v.
Alignment with similar people- People tend to react more
positively to those who they are similar to (Lumbert, 2005)
Transition: Solomon Asch demonstrated the human tendency to conform to the
thoughts of views of a group of people in his line test experiment done in the
1950s
SUSAN
5. Asch Conformity Experiments
a. Experiments done by Solomon Asch in the 1950s that demonstrated how
someone's own opinions are affected by those of groups (Cherry, 2015)
b. Aschs Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA
c. Procedure: Group of 8 people sat in a room for what they thought was a
vision test. All but one of the participants knew that the experiment was
not actually testing vision
d. A Picture with four lines was presented to the participants; one line was
set apart from the others and the participants had to state which line on
the other side of the picture matched the first line
e. At first the other participants answered the questions correctly, but then
they began giving the incorrect answers in order to throw off the person
who was not aware of what the experiment was testing.
f. When the others answered the question incorrectly, the other person
began giving the incorrect answer as well because they did not want to
stand out from the group, so instead of going with their own beliefs they
went along with the group
i.
75% of the people in the experiment conformed at least once and
gave the wrong answer
ii.
In the control group, where there was no pressure or group
influence, Less than 1% gave the wrong answer
iii.
Conclusion of the experiment
(http://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html)
1. People conform for two main reasons:
1. They do not want to be ridiculed for being peculiar
and stand out
2. They believe the group is better informed than they
are
b. How this can affect group decision making

i.

In a group setting people are more likely to go along with the

majority of the group but this can prevent new ideas of individuals
(Larsen, 1974)
Transition: This tendency to go along with popular opinions can be seem in our daily
lives in both consumerism and social media
EMILY/SAMEER
4. Bandwagon in advertising/social media/consumerism

Imitation is part of the human fabric - we are social animals, we like to socialize
things. As soon as we join a new company, club, social network, community,
anything, we look around to figure out who else is there, what they want/are
about, and who follows whom. (Maltoni 2009)
o What gets us on the same page are usually the rituals within
communities.
o Choose the side of the majority in order to seem intellectual about the
subject.
o A majority of our friends and followers come from what we see in our
feed.
Younger generation experiencing a combination of consumer crazies and
bandwagon effects; obsession with being famous, irrationality leads to
bandwagoning (Choi, 2008)
o Technology at our fingertips, access to products.
Sometimes companies don't even have to advertise because bandwagon does it
for them
o Trends and bandwagons are interchangeable ex: lokai bracelets,
Sperrys, UGGs
Desire to fit in, social competition, we want to live luxuriously
o Ex: celebrity endorsed products, clothing similar to clothing that
celebrities wore
o Ciroc Commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Z_UDXthWY
Famous figures on the internet but not in public.
o Fitness, health, fashion, and comedy.
o Only 0.4 percent of the Facebook friendships of college students reflected
pure online encounters. (First Monday, 2012)
o People can easily tap into your personal life.
o If someone sees a link or famous account of an individual, they will most
likely pay attention if they see their friends following them.
o People want to be in the scoop regardless of the matter.
o The public hops on their bandwagon because they have numerous
followers, advertise products of our interest (clothing, supplements).This
is based on their photography which makes their lives seem flawless and
exciting.
Similarly, this is apparent in entire industries who are now emerging artificially,
marketers purchase fake reviews, fake Facebook fans, and fake Twitter followers
(Conner, 2013) Social Media feeds and pages.
o Mitt Romney

More examples:
o Abercrombie: Successful bandwagon-- very popular a couple of years
ago, simple tee shirts popular bc of name Abercrombie across the front,
now you don't see anyone wear them anymore, sign of abandoned
bandwagon.
o iPhone: To this day remains the most popular phone. Those who are
uninformed about the differences between iPhones and Androids
ultimately choose the apple phone simply because of its popularity.
Yes theyre great with the apps and games, movie, music etc.
but in reality almost every smartphone these days is exactly the
same. The iPhone has become a symbol, a fashion statement, a
necessity etc.(Blair, 2012)
Leads to the accumulation of apps and social medias like twitter
and instagram.

Transition: These examples portray how it is natural for us to go along with the crowd
and try to fit in, but in a small group setting, groupthink can take away from productivity
of a group and introduction of creative ideas.
Emily Solution to avoiding the bandwagon effect in small groups:
A. Due to evaluation apprehension people may hold back from sharing original
ideas
a. When brainstorming new ideas everyone can write down their ideas on a
piece of paper and then the group can anonymously vote on the best idea
in order to get an honest opinion from everyone in the group.
b. Come up with more than one solution to any problem in order to take
other ideas into consideration
i.
Promote healthy conflict to encourage discussion and establish
norms that require members to respect each others opinions so
everyone feels comfortable sharing new ideas
B. Try to create a non-hostile, open atmosphere for group discussion
C. Establish Group Norms to be an individual
c. Most of us were taught the phrase If everyone else jumped off a cliff
would you do it too? in order to teach children to be individuals.
c. Remember to not go along with something just because everyone else is.
Consider whether the current trends or actions of your group members
are beneficial to you as an individual
Sameer 9. Conclusion
It is naturally difficult for individuals to avoid jumping on the bandwagon with
everyone else; it is human nature to go along with the crowd but that is not
always in our best interest. Sometimes its harmless, for example spending
money on silly bands, clothes and technology is not going to significantly impact
your life, but remembering that you are an individual and thinking about why
people are doing things and if it will be beneficial to you in the long run can help
you avoid always being on the bandwagon.
Just because it is a popular belief or everyone says it is does not mean that it is
right. It creates a fallacy. For instance, if someone says that everyone is smoking,
then it is really a good habit to form? It cannot be unhealthy if millions are doing
it...This is what society and pressures want us to believe. However, in order to

overcome this, we must have a sense of control and inform ourselves about the
topic at hand before we decide to hop on the bandwagon.