The Bandwagon Effect: Psychology Behind Following Trends
Explore how the bandwagon effect influences decisions in market behavior and political elections.
Page Summary
An explainer of the bandwagon effect, the tendency to adopt a belief or behavior primarily because others are, opening with the 2021 GameStop surge. It traces the term's 19th-century political origin, details the Asch conformity experiments and Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer, and Welch's informational-cascade model, and covers the underlying psychology (social proof, FOMO, social identity, loss aversion), cascade effects in financial markets, politics, and consumer markets, how to resist it, and where it diverges from the wisdom of crowds.
Contributions
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Robert Cialdini is a social psychologist; there is no 'Harvey Cialdini' (corrected first name and field).
Beforepopularized in its modern sense by political scientist Harvey Cialdini
Afterpopularized in its modern sense by social psychologist Robert Cialdini
Why: There is no 'Harvey Cialdini'; the researcher is social psychologist Robert Cialdini.
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