One man’s meat isn’t always another man’s poison.
“Sheybi I was asking you if you wanted to go before and you refused” the driver yelled as I entered the weird car. And that was when it hit me! Social proof!
If you’re at work and almost everyone suddenly starts running out of the office what would you do? You’ll run too right? What about if a certain business model is not profitable; would you or other people do it? No right? You will agree that the deciding factor of if a sale is made or not has very little to do with what is being sold and a whole lot with how it is being sold.
By the end of this article, you’ll be able to sell just about anything to just about anyone.
Today we have an influx of Instagram scammers who are doing really well and it has NOTHING to do with the fact that they’re outchea promising large amount of return on investment and everything to do with how they’re selling the idea. The persuasion techniques they apply are second to none and today I’m going to show you why. By the end of this article, you’ll be able to sell just about anything to just about anyone.
It was just a few months ago, I recall my friend Inyang coming to meet me that there is this investment opportunity he thinks we should consider. Apparently, his cousin posted it not long after his friend posted the same thing on his Instagram story. Make 40k from 10k in one day?! I mean it sounds too good to be true but if his cousin and friend have cashed out then we better do before we miss out! Moreso, he had messaged his cousin who confirmed that it’s legit.
Research shows that people are more likely to do the same thing that other people like them are doing (social proof) especially if they know one or more of the people doing it.
All that was left was for Inyang and I to send money to this man that would trade with our money and give us the ROI. He had posts on his page of transactions with other ‘happy customers’ so to us it was a no-brainer! We were already calculating what we’ll use the returns to do sef. Luckily for us, we changed our minds last minute. Only to later find out he was a scam who had hacked all his so-called happy customers’ accounts.
The psychology principle of social proof is so deep! A psychologist friend of mine Jemila shared results from a research with me. A small group of people were asked to walk past a busy road in a random order of ones, twos, and threes, you know, so they blend in and jump at a particular spot as if they were jumping over an invisible ledge. You won’t believe what happened!
Other people that were not part of the small group, you know, normal sane humans like you and I, started jumping over the invisible ledge too! If you think they’re crazy then why did you say you’ll run out of your office if people suddenly start running out?
Social proof exists because of the human cognitive bias of the bandwagon effect (more on that in future articles).
Bandwagon effect: This is the tendency for people to do or think things because other people do or think them.
An example is choosing to skip school because all of your friends were also skipping school. It’s the same reason why you feel awkward to throw dirt on the floor in a clean environment.
When I’m trying to sell something to someone — even if it’s just an idea, opinion or point of view, I show them that other people are doing it and it literally works like magic. Works even better, if you show them someone they know. As advanced as this sounds it works even for small children. I mean, they’re human too anyway.
Yesterday evening, I was leaving the mall when a weird car approached me asking if I wanted to pay for a ride to the bus stop. Weird because this sort of thing never happens. I would normally get bikes right in front of the mall but with the banning of bikes in Lagos, I already planned to walk down to the bus stop. So I refused the driver’s offer. It’s not me they’ll use for ritual abeg I said to myself.
As I began my walk down to the bus stop, I saw two people enter the weird car and I stopped and began to reconsider my stance. But no I won’t give in. Just as I was about to keep going, I saw my family friend enter the car and the car began to move. I literally chased the car down waving my hand, beaconing the driver to stop who seemed hesitant at first but finally stopped and I got in.
“Sheybi I was asking you if you wanted to go before and you refused” the driver yelled as I entered the weird car. And that was when it hit me! Social proof!
G.
Let me know in the comments if you’ve witnessed or experienced something like this too
