Do you believe in the "bandwagon effect"?

Question

Def : The bandwagon effect is a  psychological phenomenon  in which people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs, which they may ignore or override. This is so interesting in my opinion and it does exist I've seen it happen firsthand back in high school.  storytime  ( you don't have to read this if you don't want to ): When a guy crushed on me and his friends helped him with talking to me and whatever else, they usually went behind his back to try and get with me. They liked me just because he liked me. And usually when other guys saw certain guys being interested in me, suddenly they were too. Like a backstabbing kinda thing but this is also the bandwagon effect.

caring__1 · Accepted Answer

Society doesn't teach us to be unique individuals. It promotes conformity. In order to belong, and not be criticized, people often mold themselves into the ideal mold. Unfortunately, it is impossible to become ideal, so this approach only results in a society of people who feel inadequate and flawed. People focus on how they don't measure up rather than focus on their already existing assets.

Since this happens from early age, people often never have the opportunity to discover their true identity, or their true assets, or learn how to enhance what already exists. They never learn to believe in themselves or think for themselves or come up with their own creative solutions. For instance, my son likes hiring creative engineers (like himself), yet most engineers tend to just rigidly duplicate whatever they've been taught. A year after he was hired into his present department, a competitor kidnapped everyone in his department and offered them promotions and pay increases to jump ship. They all took their offers to their boss, who responded with "That's a great opportunity. You'd be a fool to pass it up." That is, to all but my son. My son was offered a better promotion and pay raise to stay. He was confused, as he was the youngest and most inexperienced person in the department, so he didn't understand the reason he was kept. I helped him to understand by asking "Who is coming up with the new ideas?"

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

There is no debate on this. I mean you can choose to believe in this or not believe in this but either way it's a reality. Open a Sociology book and see for yourself.

Now between people the effect can vary. So people are greatly affected by the collective while others not so much.

I think the younger you are the more susceptible to this you are. As you age you start to realize how little people think about you. So why care what they think about? To quote Dr. Phil "You wouldn't worry so much about what other people thought of you if you realized how seldom they do".

TheSpaceGnome · Accepted Answer

I'm immune to it.

If given the choice between isolation/being lonely and following the crowd, I choose the former. I've lost a lot of friends because of this (since I hate most popular things/activities/subjects), and I have zero regrets about it.

I like what I like and there is no one who can change that.

As far as your last paragraph, that sounds exceptionally dumb, why would anyone want to be with someone they don't like just because another person likes them?

ChicoFromThe305 · Accepted Answer

I normally call them trend hoppers, personally I believe it revolves more on the 'wanting validation and wanting to fit in' part of the brain, whichever part that may be of not wanting to feel left out or feel less than others which pushes a certain urge to want to do the same or at the very least, do something similar.

DextroShade · Accepted Answer

This mainly happens with women, not men. I could see 1000 guys saying Lizzo is hot and I wouldn't think or say the same. Those guys you mentioned would have wanted to fuck you regardless of if their friend did or not, preselection only applies to women.

electromagnetic · Accepted Answer

I wouldn’t consider myself a victim but I see it a lot when I take public transit or try to cross the street at an extremely busy space. People always pool in this one space and don’t spread out. Makes it impossible to move or get around. I 99.999% of the time will walk around the group of people at an intersection just to make it to the front and walk first. Otherwise, I am at the mercy of all the slow people going in the grain of traffic.

I don’t know if it’s similar to what you’re saying but I’ve always considered it to be the bandwagon effect cause people don’t make their own decisions but follow the crowd

Nikki1989 · Accepted Answer

Some people will believe anything if they hear it often enough.

WhiteSandyBeach · Accepted Answer

It's certainly true in politics.

DJB72 · Answer

It's also known as "group think". It's destructive to healthy growth in a group. At some point everyone gets caught up in it because they don't want to be the dissenting voice. It's more insidious than simple peer pressure to conform. Strong character can easily overcome that. The walk to the slippery slope of the bandwagon is gentle and you don't realise it's there until you're in a free fall.

Personal insight is essential to overcome it

GoodEnoughThen · Answer

For clarificatio, Google defines: Peer pressure is influence from members of a peer group. The bandwagon effect is when people do something primarily because others are doing it.

AydenHazor · Answer

I've definitely seen this happen, with political beliefs, religious beliefs and more. I've never personally seen it happen along the lines of what happened to you, but I've heard several other cases of guys, and girls too, liking someone because someone else liked them. I always viewed that more as a competition factor of trying to be better than the other person, but I can see it tying into the bandwagon effect too.

Bricealan · Answer

The jumping on the 'band wagon' is a real phenomena, that is how some 'riots' get started by someone instigating one and 'inciting others to join in. In police work, we learned to 'take down. the 'inciter in a volatile riot situation and others would not get on the band wagon.

Bklynbadboy12 · Answer

Yes you see it all the time on social one person does some dumb shit now everybody is doing that same dump shit. Like that dumb shit they was doing with the milk crates when clearly it was dangerous people was falling and breaking limbs. But some other dummy would come up and take there place

DryGermanGuy · Answer

I have seen this happening with other people that have low (er) self-esteem. So they rather just roll with the group instead of saying their opinion. We called it „swarm stupidity“. 😂

KostasKouvalis · Answer

This is pretty much American society in a nutshell😂

Billlewis · Answer

You just described the political situation in America, as it relates to white women who vote for the most far left candidate consistently.

tzdc21 · Answer

I do believe that it is very real and very common with ANYTHING. One example is clothes. If one person does it, others will do it too. People are followers

bowenw · Answer

If a lot of people feel that same way about something or are doing the same thing, it makes me consider it myself, but I always weigh the facts before deciding for myself.

AngryCarl2 · Answer

I call it peer pressure, but yeah. No one is immune.

ChefPapiChulo · Answer

they didn't like you because he liked you. they liked you cause you're a 10/10.

BLP11520 · Answer

People rarely got tattoos, now people have many I am not judging anyone by saying this my sons have several. Things people do in the bedroom has changed I will leave those things alone but you know what I’m talking about. What you do is you and your lover’s business and not mine. Bucking a trend by saying no thanks is okay too

Still-alive · Answer

Well there are things such as fads and trends so yeah i can believe it. When you see a huge crowd it just seems natural to be curious about what’s happening and even join them.

Unit1 · Answer

This has been evident throughout history and today is still strongly prevalent, although not as much as previously thankfully.

nudeNhorny · Answer

only if you are a hive-minded person who follow the steam or go with the wind. lucky for me I'm not, I go in the opposite direction, almost all the time 😂

Mynameisbobby · Answer

Yup heard of it and was a victim of it in junior high and high school.

boobliker · Answer

it has a lot of power as others jump on board not always for the good,.

Aiko_E_Lara · Answer

Yes. Many people seem to not know themselves very well so they let other define who they are.

scooogy · Answer

The basic human need for social inclusion would fit here.

Anonymous · Answer

are you sure its the bandwagon effect? sounds more likely they talk about you as the slut thats easy

LunarEclipse433 · Answer

I feel that some people feel that they are cool if they agree with others. I have my own opinions

Danny_dan92 · Answer

Yeah, it’s part of our tribal mindset

BarryLiverstone · Answer

Ya this happened to me in college

shades777 · Answer

its something people are guilty of

Slim57 · Answer

Definitely a true thing

Anonymous · Answer

Yes, that is 100% true.

Chayce · Answer

Absolutely.

Anonymous · Answer

Absolutely

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