Social Proof of Influence-Breaking the Mold
As a child, I hated doing household chores but would do them anyway just to please those around me. Having lived with my grandparents, a household where I was the only child, I was sometimes forced to engage in chores that I considered to be above my ability. However, I never attempted to turn down the duties due to the fear that they would eject me from the house. I was particularly afraid of my senior uncles and aunts, who treated any complaint as an act of rudeness.
I would do things differently if I were in the same position now. According to Covey (2020), to be highly effective, one must embrace an inside-out approach to looking at issues. While trying to be likable and successful from the outside, one should also consider doing what makes them wholesome. I should have balanced between making friends and being helpful to my family. I should have also tried to avoid being a socially impressive person. My behaviour was mostly based on trying to be good to get a social reward rather than doing what made me happy. Another trait I consider important is primary greatness over secondary greatness. Primary greatness would have helped me be firm and communicate rather than trying to be socially impressive through secondary greatness.
As a herd mentality, social proof can be beneficial and detrimental to a leader. One of the benefits of social proof are that it is based on social evidence (Cialdini, 2021). When leaders embrace behavior that has been largely proven to be socially beneficial, they are likely to succeed. A good example is purchasing a product from online platforms based on positive reviews. However, social proof may be detrimental when leaders or people act on socially fake evidence in a reflexive fashion based on counterfeit evidence (Cialdini, 2021). For instance, some nightclubs may want to create a positive brand by manufacturing long queues outside, yet there is limited space inside.
According to Agerström et al. (2016), social norms in the immediate environment form the basis of the norms of the business. If the organization’s vision goes against social norms, then it is incumbent upon the leader to optimize their organization’s performance through social norming. Social norming is not rules created by leaders but rather a set of expectations for an organization’s people (Cislaghi & Heise, 2018). Once employees interact with fellow employees and outsiders based on collective values, a sense of shared values is created.
References
Agerström, J., Carlsson, R., Nicklasson, L., & Guntell, L. (2016). Using descriptive social norms to increase charitable giving: The power of local norms. Journal of Economic Psychology, 52, 147-153.
Cialdini, R. B. (2021). Influence, new and expanded: The psychology of persuasion. HarperCollins.
Cislaghi, B., & Heise, L. (2018). Theory and Practice of Social Norms Interventions: Eight Common Pitfalls. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3139696
Covey, S. (2020). 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary Guided Journal
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Question 
Breaking the MoldUnit 4 DB: Breaking the Mold
First, make sure to read about social proof in Influence Chapter 4. Think of a time when you felt pressure to do something you did not want to do (or did not do something you wanted to do) because of social proof. The situation can be work-related; it could be related to school (even as a child) or pressure from family. Answer the following questions:
Social Proof of Influence-Breaking the Mold
Briefly describe the situation.
Did you go along with the pressure? Why or why not?
Knowing what you know now, would you make a different decision? Why or why not?
What are some ways that social proof can help a leader succeed? What are some ways that social proof can derail a leader?
Thinking about businesses, with such a strong psychological drive for acceptance, how can a person lead when the vision might go against currently accepted norms