February 21, 2011 02:22 PM ET
When I ask 18,000 people to get naked in a square, do they listen? Noooo, but when Mr. big time artist asks...
On May 6, 2007, Spencer Tunick, an American artist, set a new record by gathering 18,000 naked people (male and female volunteers of different ages) to perform various poses for him in Mexico City's principal square, the Zocalo.
This was a very important, and interesting project because not just anyone could accomplish this. Not even the greatest of speakers can always summon this amount of people. To put things into perspective, Barack Obama's largest crowd during his campaign was during his Philadelphia Rally where he drew 35,000 people. We are talking about the President here. And somehow, in Mexico City, Tunick was able to achieve 18,000 people. Amazing. So what's our point here?
Like it or not, human beings are creatures of conformity. They won't participate in social groups or activities where they are not likely to be accepted, well-liked, or succeed. Do you think anyone would have gotten naked if only 3 people showed up? I doubt it. But if hundreds, and thousands of people are taking their clothes off, surely it's the thing to do. Off go the clothes!
Look at the people around you. Do they like the same music, have similar cars, clothing styles, standard of living? How about political, or religious views? Are they working in a similar industry as you?
You've heard this right? It's cool...it's good...it's the best...it's the new thing...it's in style now. But who determines "cool" "good" "the best" and "in style." Who are these authorities, or ambassodors of "cool". I'll tell you who. People like me. Believe it or not, I am one of the people who influence how you think, how you live, what you buy, and who you socialize with. This is what I do, and I'll bet you never even knew it. I use conformity to influence your purchase decisions with my clients. It's actually a really good thing to understand, so don't freak out. Lets look at what conformity really is.
The act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to what is perceived normal of their own society or social group, occuring in both small groups and whole society.
Social pressure and unconscious influence can dictate purchase decisions, befriending patterns, educational paths, child development, office culture, elections and just about everything you do. Yes, you read that correctly. Every...thing...you...do. TV commercials, print ads, your favorite news sites, conversations with your friends and family all influence everything you do in your life, and you're probably not even aware of it.
I used to speak extremely negative of Apple products because I felt they didn't do anything better than a Windows PC (which I had owned for 10 years). I wasn't born a PC lover, or Mac hater. Something drove me to this state of mind, but what? Windows machines required lots of babysitting. Lots and lots of Windows updates, patches, work arounds, rebooting, memory upgrades, and the list just goes on and on. Owning a PC was a lot of work, so how could I be such a PC advocate?
Two words. Unconscious influence.
In January of 2010, I purchased a brand new, maxed out, top of the line Dell notebook (Windows PC) to be my machine of choice for a major business contract that I had just won. I loved it.
I had this sucker custom built exactly the way I wanted it, so it had to be perfect, right? And then, day number 9 of ownership arrived. I swooped my finger across the mousepad and nothing happened. Desperate, I frantically pressed "control alt delete". Nothing, it froze, then crashed. I lost all my stuff.
It originally took me 8 hours to get it set up the way I wanted it, and now it's all gone. After 11 phone calls to Dell, speaking to people who I could barely understand, provided no empathy or apology for this major inconvenience, made the mistake of asking me to "reinstall windows" on my brand new machine. Yeah...not happenin'.
In less than ten seconds, 10 years of loyalty, gone.
This is where my conformed little brain kicked in. I did not want to speak to a person in India. I did not want someone to tell me "this is normal". I wanted to talk to someone who "gets it". Someone like me. My subconscious took over and blocked out everything the Dell rep was saying, and I demanded a refund.
Without hesitation, I immediately, and without any research, or deal searching, called up Apple's 800 number. The minute that Apple representative answered the phone with a clear, strong American voice, I knew this my new home. He sounded like me. He provided empathy for my PC frustrations. For a moment, we had a subgroup of two people. My dollars were going here, and (for the first time in my life) didn't care about paying a higher price. I wanted loyalty, comfort, and something that "just works".
It was like being in a long, drama-stricken relationship and finally breaking it off for someone who has silently been there for me the whole time. It just felt right.
I custom ordered a maxed out 17 inch Macbook Pro (that I am currently writing this article with) and haven't looked back. I am not a strong advocate for Apple products, especially the Apple Macbook Pro.
Whoa where did that come from? I've never owned a Mac before. Why would I all of a sudden instill so much trust and money into uncharted territory? This is crazy, right? Wait a minute. The commercials. My friends. My colleagues who own Macs. They have been saying this for years. They were trying to tell me. Ohhhh!!! I was now a victim of conformity. And sometimes, it works out for the best!
I had Windows PC's long before most of the people who were trying to tell me Macs were better, so I was sure I knew best. It only took once incident to succumb to the other side of "group think" and now I chant the same messages as those around me. Weird huh? That's a mighty powerful brand Apple has there.
Let's talk hypothetical net loss here. Putting this into perspective. I am one customer, who will speak vigorously against a brand I don't like, and speak highly of a brand I do like. My network of technology colleageues, friends and enthusiasts extends to about 700 people; all who have a computer. Now, if I had the capability to influence 5% of these people to buy a Macbook Pro for their next laptop purchase per year, then we are talking 35 sales for Apple (per year). If they become a net promoter for Apple, and each convince 1 person to buy an Apple Macbook per year, then I have extended my reach to 70 people in 2 years. If the trend continued exactly on this path; 140, 280, 560, 1120, 2240, 4480, 8960, 17920, 35,840, and eventually 71,680 Macbook Pro's in 10 years. That means my influence of 35 people buying 1 Macbook translated to 71,680 Macbook's sold in 10 years. All because of a Dell customer service rep who I couldn't identify with (lacked conformity). Now, how much money is that? If each Macbook cost about $2000 (and they do) the rough figure is 143,360,000 over 10 years. Oops!
Lots of people regard NASA as a highly prestigious institution and would love to work there, but most people do not apply for a job at NASA, simply because they don't think they are qualified, lack the experience, or would not perform well if hired.
In an experiment led by Solomon Asch of Swarthmore College, he asked groups of students to participate in a "vision test." In reality, all but one of the participants were confederates of the experimenter, and the study was really about how the remaining student would react to the confederates' behavior.
The basic Asch paradigm consists of the participants and the confederates who were all seated in the same classroom. All were asked a variety of questions and were told to announce their answers to each question out loud. The confederates always provided their answers before the study participant, and always gave the same answer as each other. The confederates were instructed to answer the first set of questions correctly, and then provide incorrect responses to the remaining questions.
In a control group, with no pressure to conform to an erroneous view, only one subject out of 35 ever gave an incorrect answer. Soloman Asch hypothesized that the majority of people would not conform to something obviously wrong; however when surrounded by individuals all voicing an incorrect answer, participants provided incorrect responses on a high proportion of the questions. Seventy-five percent of the participants gave an incorrect answer to at least one question while knowing it was incorrect.
You should be aware of this because conformity can be used to your advantage in many ways. Sales, marketing, friendships, business relationships. Understanding what makes people comfortable can help you become much more successful at anything you do. Remember, everyone, and I mean everyone, wants to be accepted into a subgroup. Even the people who go out of their way to be "different" from the majority of society, still seek out other like-minded individuals and eventually form another subgroup.
Human beings love being in a heard, or a subgroup. Again, here are examples - church, school, republican/democratic party, P90x, concerts, drinks after work, Facebook, the gym etc. are all foundations for heards or subgroups. If you can grow the heard, or influence the heard, then you will have access to a level of success that many can only dream of.
You may not have to conform, but if you want to get sales, leads, make friends, and do well in life, you will have to learn how to influence others to conform to you.
Signing off – Joe Taylor
