Scientific Definition
People adopt behaviors and opinions because others do.
Plain-English Definition
People adopt behaviors and opinions because others do.
Feynman Explanation
Safety in numbers, even when the numbers are wrong.
Core Principle
People adopt behaviors and opinions because others do.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
People adopt behaviors and opinions because others do.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
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Herd behavior drives bubbles, fads, and missed opportunities.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Safety in numbers, even when the numbers are wrong.
Examples
- A department adopts the same software as competitors without evaluation.
- Herd behavior drives bubbles, fads, and missed opportunities.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Require an independent business case before following the crowd.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Require an independent business case before following the crowd.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Following the group instead of using private information or independent judgment.
A group decides on a course of action that nobody actually wants, because everyone assumes others prefer it.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We attribute our own actions to situations but others' actions to their character.
We favor people who are similar to us or who like us.
Sacrificing for others without expecting a personal reward.
Masking the sponsors of a message to make it appear grassroots.
Disagreement grows more extreme as the parties think more about the issue.
Systematic errors in explaining the causes of behavior — yours or others'.
We accept vague, general statements as personally meaningful.
Adding the word 'because' (with any reason) increases compliance dramatically.
Behaviors spread through groups via observation and imitation.