Bandwagon Effect - SAGES Leadership Academy

Bandwagon effect is a cognitive bias that affects the way we make decisions.

Now what is a cognitive bias?

Cognitive bias is a systematic error in making judgments and thinking; that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them that affects the decisions that they make. Cognitive biases are often a result of your brain’s attempt to simplify information processing

We would like to believe we are objective and rational, and generally make good decisions in our lives. Unfortunately, this is not always true, we are all prone to using heuristics and having cognitive biases which lead us to make irrational and incorrect decisions.

In this article we look at one bias The Bandwagon effect. Lets find out what it is and how it affects us.

Bandwagon Effect

Imagine you went to the store and bought a brown sweater, later when you wore it at home you decide you aren’t very happy with the way it looks. So now, you mostly avoid wearing this sweater outside. One day you happen to be wearing it when some friends come to visit you. All of them compliment the sweater, one of your friends even asks to borrow it sometime, suddenly you see this sweater in a new light and start wearing it outside.

This is a mild example of the Bandwagon effect. Where people believe in something because others believe in it.

We adopt certain behaviors and beliefs only because many other people can be seen doing the same thing. This is the Bandwagon effect

Why

There are several reasons for this bias

It’s a shortcut, its an excuse for our minds to not do its own critical thinking and make the effort to search for the demerits of something that is a popular belief.

We want to fit in. We want to belong and therefore, tend to go along with the widespread belief rather than research ideas ourselves.

We want to be on the winning side. We make the judgement that the majority of people agreeing with a particular idea, opinion etc. must mean that it is correct. So, if we agree with their ideas, we will be correct as well. ¡

A lack of individual critical thinking can have particularly damaging implications when it is widespread. Social and political movements are thus often subject to the bandwagon effect.

No one has escaped the Bandwagon effect, In fact, it has been seen to influence the decisions made by doctors. Many medical procedures that have been widely practiced for long periods of time have since been disproven. Rikkers gives us the example of tonsillectomy (the removal of one’s tonsils) as a recent case of medical bandwagons. Even though the procedure can be beneficial in some cases, there is no scientific support for its universal use

Situations

Politics: this effect is most often seen in political campaigns and in the public choice of a political candidate. Often the popular candidate is the one that most people will vote for, without looking for much information about them.

Fashion trends: Preferences in clothing type and colors as we saw in the first example are strongly guided by the bandwagon effect.

Medical decisions: Sometimes, certain procedures, and medicines become popular, sometimes aided by the media, pharmaceutical companies, and even doctors who believe the trend. This leads us to take these medicines/procedures when they might not have been necessary as we saw in the above example was true for tonsillectomy.

Littering: yes even in our decision to litter we follow the bandwagon effect. People are more likely to litter in an area that is already littered than in clean ones.

Financial decisions: It is seen that if sufficient (few) people make offers of the first bid for shares of a certain company, more individuals will follow the lead. It has been seen that stock market prices are also influenced by the bandwagon effect.

How to Avoid

As we saw with the previous example, no matter how well-read, or educated you are, you will still be affected by the bandwagon effect, but we can counteract it with the following measures:

Slow it down- Slow down your decision making process. Let some time pass between when we first notice the idea and when we make our final decision on it. This will force us not to hop on the bandwagon as shortcut and critically think about our own preferences about the ideas.

Say no to peer pressure- Try and make decisions away from environments where you feel pressured to adopt an idea

Be the devil- Lastly, make yourself look for and acknowledge counterpoints and demerits of a widely held belief. This will at the very least, help you keep your neutrality.

That was all about “the bandwagon effect” but we have many more biases. Cognitive biases can negatively affect how we explore and remember information, how we build our beliefs and ideas and make judgments about the world. It can also lead to distorted thinking patterns, where the bias is so automatic and deep-rooted it becomes very uncomfortable to challenge them. So read on to other biases to make more intentional and informed choices.

References

Barnfield, Matthew (2020-11-01). “Think Twice before Jumping on the Bandwagon: Clarifying Concepts in Research on the Bandwagon Effect”. Political Studies Review.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1478929919870691

Rikkers, L. (2002). The Bandwagon Effect. Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, 6(6), 787-794. doi:10.1016/s1091-255x(02)00054-9

Bikhchandani, Sushil; Hirshleifer, David; Welch, Ivo (1992). “A theory of fads, fashion, customs and cultural change as information cascades” http://www.dklevine.com/archive/refs41193.pdf

“The Bandwagon Effect Why People Tend To Follow The Crowd” https://effectiviology.com/bandwagon/

“Why do we support opinions as they become popular” https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/bandwagon-effect/