Moo! Exploring our conformity to groups

December 14th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Tags: Copywriting · Internet Marketing · Persuasion & Influence

Whether we like it or not, groups of humans act a lot like herds. In action, opinion and even feelings, people are natural followers of the particular group they belong to. Even in the most extreme situations, group-think tends to overcome individualism.

As a copywriter and marketer these are good news for you, because by the time you finish reading this article, you’ll realize that once you can influence how a group thinks, you will be able to automatically persuade new members to conform without even trying. How? Let’s get some background first…

In 1935, a social psychologist named Mazafer Sherif scientifically proved the existence of group-think. He did it with a series of experiments on different groups while studying a phenomenon called “Autokinetic effect”. Here’s how the experiment was set up…

He put varied groups of people in a pitch black room and asked them to stare at a tiny point of light in the distance. After a few minutes he would interview the people in the group (first individually and then as a group) to ask them if the point was moving or if it was static.

You can actually try this yourself. Stare at a stationary point of light in a dark room and you’ll see that the light appears to move and wobble at times.

According to Sherif’s data, when people in the group interviewed individually, the opinion was almost equally divided: about half of them saw the light move, the other half insisted the light was completely static.

The interesting part came when they were put back together and interviewed as a group. It was then that Sherif noticed that individuality started to vanish when a large percentage of people recanted their initial answer to conform to what the group appeared to think.

This made Sherif wonder, so he decided to interview each person separately again. To his surprise, every single one of them held on to the group’s opinion… even over their own previous personal experience.

In a separate experiment, the research team at Schater & Singer (1962) gave people epinephrine (a drug that intensifies emotions) and locked them up in a room with other test subjects and an undercover actor.

Some of the subjects were in a room with an actor who was told to act angry. Others were in a room with an actor told to act happy and giddy. In every case, the test subjects mimicked the emotions of the actor that was in the room with them.

How can I apply this information to my marketing?

Think testimonials, case studies, success stories, videos, community forums, etc. Actively research your customer base for happy users of your product and showcase them for everyone else to see. The more, the merrier! Just keep in mind that you’ll only be able to use this technique if you consistently wow your customers and exceed their expectations.

When your prospects see that other members of your group (people who have already bought your product) are happy and delighted, they will feel much more inclined to buy from you - for the plain and simple reason that they will not be alone in the experience.

Be careful though… use this tactic wisely and apply it with tact and elegance. Else, your website will start to look and sound like a sleazy, grinning used car salesman. The right balance will be dictated to you by your target audience and your own sense of good taste.