Laziness to Think As promised in the previous post, I’m here again to talk about the most famous Mental Trigger that exists , and that influences you every day, all the time, without you noticing it (at least, not consciously). It’s the trigger called SOCIAL PROOF !
SOCIAL_PROOF_MENTAL_TRIGGER
(Just to quickly recap, this is the 3rd trigger I’m addressing in my content. In case you missed the first ones, here are the links: Mental Trigger of Reciprocity ).
Let’s go!
Social proof: how does it work?
I always like to introduce the concept of a trigger georgia phone number list with a story, to provide a quick understanding for the reader. Sometimes, I spend a lot of time thinking of an example. In this case, 10 seconds! (As I said above, it is very famous).
On my last vacation before my son was born, I went with my wife and two other couples of friends to Europe. When we arrived in Barcelona, we were immediately advised to take a night tour to the Royal Square of Barcelona (Plaça Reial), where we could have dinner and drinks. We took the advice and went.
When we got there, there were many options of Laziness
Think nice restaurants/bars. We noticed that how to create a landing page in hubspot? one was quite full, with a small waiting line. Next to it, there was another one, completely empty. And we started talking about which one we should go to.
At that moment, I heard a friend say: “Ah, it’s worth waiting and going for the best, after all, when will we be in Barcelona together again?” And everyone agreed, including me.
Do you realize?
We didn’t read reviews about the qatar data establishments to compare. There was no tasting, we didn’t try the food.
But we all concluded that the full restaurant was better, period.
We just took a shortcut to this decision. And this shortcut was activated by the mental trigger of SOCIAL PROOF: “if a lot of people are choosing this product/service, it must be good”.
Want to see another practical example? How many times do we judge whether a company is big/trustworthy by the number of Facebook/Instagram fans?
“Ah, if she has 5 million followers on Instagram, she must post good content, I’ll follow her too!”
It is also known that many nightclubs
They “create” queues on purpose, with the intention Laziness to Think of inducing people outside the venue to think that the night inside is unmissable (even if the place is still empty)!
Why do mental triggers work so well?
Confused Question Mark GIF by Preity G Zinta
When people make a decision, they don’t always base it on information/analysis.
There’s no time! From the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep, we are deciding:
– What am I going to eat for breakfast?
– What clothes will I wear? Should I take an umbrella?
– What tasks will I do first at work?
– Should I make dinner or order delivery?
– What time should I set my alarm for tomorrow?
It’s all the time opting for something.
If our brain were to analyze all the information about each option for each task, weighing the pros and cons of each choice, our heads would melt!
To prevent this from happening, our brains have decision-making SHORTCUTS. In other words, it pays attention to certain central characteristics that will help it make a decision, without having to go through a huge analysis process.
We are constantly looking for clues in the world about how to make decisions faster. And in the case of this Social Proof Mental Trigger example, the following logic prevails: if many people are making decisions this way, it must be better for me to make the same choice.
→ After all, if you are walking down the street and notice that there are a large number of people running desperately to one side, wouldn’t you do the same, to later find out what is happening?
Finally I would like to share the results of a study
conducted in New York, which also showed that the greater the number of people doing something, the stronger the power to influence someone. Take a look:
Scenario 1 : an actor stood still, looking at the sky. In this case, it was observed that 40% of the people who passed by him also looked in the same direction.
Scenario 2 : This time, two actors stood still, looking up. It was observed that now 60% of the people passing by also looked up at the sky.
Scenario 3 : Last time, there were four actors looking at the sky. It was noted that now 80% of the people who passed by made the same gesture!