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Phil Gerbyshak's avatar

It's why people buy likes and followers too, because of this effect. It's the way we are programmed, and I don't love it all that much :)

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Mack Collier's avatar

Yes and it also reflects how if we don’t have a strong opinion, we are more likely to just agree with the majority opinion. Most people just want to fit in.

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Neela 🌶️'s avatar

The Salganik study really nails how we're all secretly sheep in human clothing, doesn't it?

What strikes me most is how this phenomenon has only intensified in our social media-saturated world. We're not JUST influenced by the people around us anymore; we're influenced by algorithms showing us what they think we want to see based on what others are engaging with. It's like inception, but for popularity hahahaha. Always enlightening Mack - Thank you so much!

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Mack Collier's avatar

Hi Neela, I found the same songs getting wildly different popularity scores based on if scores were shown within a group to be fascinating. It’s one reason why I wish social media platforms didn’t show the number of Likes, I think a significant portion of Likes are simply given because the content already has X number of Likes. We Like the stuff that everyone else is already Liking, and I think this study helped prove that. Happy weekend, and thanks so much for commenting and sharing!

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Mladena's avatar

"Swimming downstream" is a human trait that can be useful, but sometimes it "brings us down." We must be aware of it and control it. Thank you @Mack Collier!

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Mack Collier's avatar

Thank you Mladena!

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Mladena's avatar

You’re very welcome Mack!

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