Social Proof

Social proof, also called informational social influence, is a psychological and social phenomenon in which people copy the actions of others as a guide for how to behave in an ambiguous situation, driven by the assumption that the people around them possess more knowledge about the situation than they do. The term was coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book Influence: Science and Practice, and the phenomenon is considered one type of conformity, distinguished from normative social influence, in which a person conforms in order to be liked or accepted, because social proof reflects a belief that others' interpretation of the situation is more accurate. It often produces not only public compliance, outwardly conforming without necessarily believing it is correct, but also private acceptance, a genuine belief that the others are right, and formal analysis has shown that it can cause groups to converge too quickly on a single choice grounded in very little real information, a pattern studied as an information cascade.