Why Do People Follow The Crowd?
The Bandwagon effect is considered a cognitive bias. This effect influences people’s thinking processes and behaviour because they assume that others are behaving similarly. For instance, people might adapt to a certain social trend merely because other people are following it.
Examples:
- In terms of the political scenario, people are inclined to support and elect the candidate they believe would win the election.
- In terms of social media scenarios, most of the time, people are influenced by others when it comes to sharing and engaging posts on social media.
The reasons behind the bandwagon effect
People and their behaviour are significantly impacted by societal pressure and standards. But other aspects highly influence the bandwagon effect:
Group thinking mentality
This can be explained with the scenario of following trends. If a majority of people follow a trend, there is a possibility that more people will tend to follow that trend. People usually do this as they feel pressure to comply. This is why the bandwagon effect is very easy to establish.
