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Peer pressure’s effects are perhaps more powerful than we thought (2014)

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Peer pressure’s effects are perhaps more powerful than we thought (2014)

#4
The article is from 2014 and it is about a paper studying "social effects in consumption" in a controlled situation (i.e. while you are stuck in an airplane), and another paper about social influences of high schoolers signing up for an SAT prep class.

While the studies are interesting, it is hardly worthy of the click-bait title.

TL;DR if you sit next to someone on an airplane who buys a drink you are 30% more likely to buy a drink yourself (and presumably the study successfully controlled for people traveling together).

Edit: The post title was just changed from what I clicked on "People around you control your mind: The latest evidence" which was so much more entertaining!

Re: Peer pressure’s effects are perhaps more powerful than we thought (2014)

#5
On the airline experiment: says if the person sitting next to you purchases something, you're 30% more likely to purchase something.

Isn't the person next to you more likely to be your friend or family member? What portion of people travel alone? And if they're related, chances are high they have similar expectations/acceptance of in-flight purchases.

Edit: found this article with more details: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/pedro-m-gardete-fellow... Apparently, if they have the same reservation #, it doubles.

Re: Peer pressure’s effects are perhaps more powerful than we thought (2014)

#6

On the airline experiment: says if the person sitting next to you purchases something, you're 30% more likely to purchase something. Isn't the person next to you more likely to be your friend or family member? What portion of people travel alone? And if they're related, chances are high they have similar expectations/acceptance of in-flight purchases. Edit: found this article with more details: https://www.gsb.stanfo…

Reservation information was used to control for people flying together - not that I would consider it a foolproof method. In all the times I've flown, probably 80% were with someone but the reservations were not made together. I doubt I'm the only one for whom this is representative since it was business travel.

Re: Peer pressure’s effects are perhaps more powerful than we thought (2014)

#8

On the airline experiment: says if the person sitting next to you purchases something, you're 30% more likely to purchase something. Isn't the person next to you more likely to be your friend or family member? What portion of people travel alone? And if they're related, chances are high they have similar expectations/acceptance of in-flight purchases. Edit: found this article with more details: https://www.gsb.stanfo…

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Re: Peer pressure’s effects are perhaps more powerful than we thought (2014)

#9
Now that the headline is changed from the click-bait attempt at reducing individual responsibility for actions, I'm struck by just how insidiously pervasive these attempts seem to be. One could make a slightly paranoid case that it is a left-leaning goal to convince people that the aren't in charge of themselves anyway, so just let mama gov't take over.

Re: Peer pressure’s effects are perhaps more powerful than we thought (2014)

#10
This is why certain groups have such a strong interest in controlling twitter, facebook, google, etc. Most people simply go along with what they perceive as the majority opinion. This used to take the form of doing whate everyone around you does, which is why political views tended to group up so much by community.

But we no longer have communities, we no longer speak to actual people, especially not about anything like politics. So that instinctive conformity is now based on easily falsified information presented though the media. This is why facebook prevents certain topics from trending, and puts others that are not naturally trending into the trending queue.

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