Thread by @econnaturalist

My UNDER THE INFLUENCE: PUTTING PEER PRESSURE TO WORK will be published on January 28, 2020 by Princeton University Press. In this thread, I’ll describe an illustration of the surprising power of peer example. 1/
@PrincetonUPress @a_f13nd

“Behavioral contagion” refers loosely to the idea that “sociocultural phenomena can spread through, and leap between, populations more like outbreaks of measles or chicken pox than through a process of rational choice.” 2/

Many social scientists view contagion with a critical eye. I have not come across a more vivid example that seems to support this characterization than one portrayed in Alan Funt’s 1970 film, What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? 3/

The film is a series of vignettes like those portrayed in Funt’s long-running television series, Candid Camera. In one, Funt places an ad inviting candidates to interview for a high-paying position, then arranges appointments to meet with those who respond. 4/

As the scene unfolds, the camera focuses on a man who arrives for his interview and is directed to a waiting room where four others are already seated. The man assumes that the others are also there to be interviewed, but viewers know them to be confederates of Mr. Funt. 5/

After some moments elapse without incident, the confederates rise unbidden and begin removing their clothing. Funt’s subject initially seems bemused, but he gradually displays an expression of concern as he struggles to figure out what’s going on. 6/

But after a few more moments pass, he appears to reach a tipping point. He, too, rises and begins taking off his own clothing. As the scene ends, he and the others are standing naked, waiting for some indication of what comes next. 7/

Many people who witness this scene feel confident that they would not have behaved as Funt’s subject did. And since we don't know how many times Funt ran this experiment before he got the footage he wanted, perhaps they are right. 8/

Yet we should not be too quick to ridicule the man’s behavior. He was hoping, quite reasonably, to land a job that paid significantly more than he was earning. 9/

Because the others arrived before he did, he would have assumed, plausibly, that they were better informed about what came next. It would thus have been reasonable for him to have concluded that the next step in the interview process required taking off his clothes. 10/

The others had already begun doing so, and since it was reasonable for him to believe that they knew more than he did, it was also reasonable to conclude that they believed the next steps in the protocol were worth taking. 11/

His apparent options were thus either to conform, or else abandon his chance at a substantial pay raise. If he thought that conformity entailed only a risk of minor embarrassment, it might well have seemed prudent to go along. 12/

UNDER THE INFLUENCE explores the awesome power of the social environment to shape all that we believe, say, and do. It describes simple steps that could harness that power to help solve many of the most pressing problems we face--chief among them, the climate crisis. 13/

The book will be out late next month but is available for preorder now:
amazon.com/dp/B07XKFLWCT/…