The Bandwagon Fallacy

Trying to predict how people behave is not as easy as most people think. An individual’s response to certain events may vary radically when this individual is put into a group of people. With that in mind, some people try to win other people’s opinions in an indirect attempt to falsify their personal beliefs, where someone usually concludes his point of view by saying “many people did so and so, therefore it must be true”. The phrase used in Latin, to describe this behavior precisely, is called “Argumentum Ad Populum”, it means in plain English “Appeal to the People”. What appeals to others makes people think it is right. People tend to agree on what other people think. The greater the herd is, the stronger this effect becomes and more and more people will jump in to the wagon, hence the name “the Bandwagon Effect”.

This effect is very crucial when it comes to politics, economy or even simple matters like supporting a sport team. In marketing, for instance, the theory of “supply and demand” assumes that consumers buy products based on its price with relation to their personal preference. However, the problem ascends when people’s preferences for buying a commodity increase as the number of people buying it increase, not their personal demand for it.

Even on organizational levels, this theory is present. Most managerial decisions are based on what other departments or even other organizations did. The very concept of bench-marking or referencing is based on that, although that is quite a safe-side insurance strategy and doesn’t necessarily has to be wrong, however, it eliminates a little bit the creativity factor from the equation which brings in mind the “Paradigm Shift” theory as an opposing adversary that wipes out a whole thought-pattern of public beliefs.

Anyway, with the holy month of Ramadan on our door steps, I think it’s a good idea to start evaluating what we do as habits or traits mistaking them for religious duties. We commit unknowingly many mistakes out of tradition, not doing things because they are right, “Just following the herd”. Not only in Ramadan, but on any given time, there are many behaviors and wrong-doings casted upon our society that we repeat and accept just because it has the mass public approval.. it just annoys me when someone says in an arguement, with a goofy look on his face:
"why everybody does it.." -_-

Just to conclude, at one point of time, the whole world thought that the sun was rotating around the earth, the whole world thought that Earth is flat.. yet it turned out to be the exact opposite..!