The effect of joining the majority

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In psychology, the effect of joining the majority or the effect of imitation is the phenomenon of the spread of certain beliefs among a group, community, etc. Refers to the tendency for people to adopt a behavior, style, or attitude simply because everyone else is doing it.

The majority-joining effect is closely related to groupthink. People working in a team, as a rule, try to maintain harmony between all its members. In order to achieve this state, a person may even agree with decisions that he considers to be wrong. Thus, in order to avoid conflict, group members accept a certain point of view without critical evaluation.

The effect of joining the majority as a cognitive distortion

The effect of joining the majority (the effect of imitation) is the result of cognitive distortion - an error in thinking that affects the judgments and actions of people. Examples:

• Fashion. Many people start wearing certain clothes because they see how popular it is among others, that is, they follow fashion trends.
• Music. The more people start listening to a song or artist, the more likely others will do the same.
• Social networks. As more and more people start using certain Internet sites, others also tend to register on them.
• Diet. The more people follow a diet, the more they want to try it out and join them.

Factors influencing the occurrence of the effect of imitation​

Why does the effect of joining the majority arise? Some of the factors are:

• Group thinking. The majority joining effect is essentially a type of groupthink - the more people follow something, the more likely others will join them.
• The desire to be confident that you are right . People love to be right, they want to be on the winning side.
• Fear of being alone. It is one of the main factors due to which a person joins the majority. Fear acts as one of the most powerful stimulants for the majority effect. If our mind is not clouded by fear, we tend to think clearly and logically. We are less likely to blindly follow others if our decisions are based on correct reasoning. People, as a rule, do not want to be “strange”, so when they get into a certain group, they automatically adopt the rules and beliefs prevailing in it, so as not to be isolated. With the acceptance of the norms and the attitude of the majority, they receive the consent and approval of the group.

Negative and negative effects​

The impact of the imitation effect is often relatively harmless, for example, in fashion, music, or pop culture. However, sometimes it can lead to negative consequences. For example, in relation to health. A typical illustration is smoke breaks at work, when a new person starts smoking, because everyone smokes, and informal communication takes place in the smoking room. Another example is the confrontation between two divisions in a company (as an option - financial audit versus marketing), when members of one team support their own by default, regardless of the nature of the situation.

But while the effect of joining the majority has dangerous consequences, it also leads to many positive results. For example - adopting a healthy lifestyle. If there is a feeling that the majority rejects unhealthy habits (smoking, alcohol) and takes healthy ones (proper nutrition, exercise), people tend to do this too.

Thus, the effect of joining the majority demonstrates the result of the inability of people in some situations to make their own decisions based on personal knowledge. And in general, the ability to always refrain from the influence of social pressure, trends, etc. actually absent. Therefore, it should be understood that moving forward and accepting certain things in life, we often cannot establish the correctness of the information that confirms these decisions.